CHAPTER XVIIL ye make an end of words t (So Rosenmiiller, Gesenins, Welte, Merx, Lee, and Canon Vars. 1-21.-Bildad's second speech is Cook.) Others render, "How long will ye no improvement upon bis first (eh. viii.). lay B11ares for words?" which is a possible He has evidently been exceedingly nettled translation, but does not give o. very good sense. Bildad, a tolerably concise speaker by Job's contemptuous words concerning bis himself (see eh. viii. 2-22; xxv. 2-6), is "comforters" (eh. xvi. 2, 11; xvii. 10); aud impatient at the length of Job's replies. He aims at nothing but venting his anger, and had already, in his former speech (eh. viii. terrifying Job by a series of denunciations 2), reproached Job with bis proli:!tity; now and threats. Job has become to him "the he repeats the charge. The employment of the second person plural in this and the wicked mon" (vers. 5, 21), an embodiment following verses is not very easily accounted of all that is evil, and one "that knoweth not for. llildod can scaroely mean to blame his God." No punishment is too severe for him. friend FJiphaz. Perhaps be regards Job as having supporters among the lookers-on, o[ Vera. 1, 2.-Then answered Bildad the whom there may have been seveml besides Bhuhite, and 1aid1 How _long will it be eze Elihu (oh. xu.ii. 2), Mark; r11.ther, con- 808 THE BOOK OF JOB. [on. xvm. 1-21,
nrler; i.e. think a littlo, instead of talking. whole hOtUe of the uugodly me.u, not to him- And &fterwanh we will 1peak. Then, oalmly self only. As Schultens sl\ys, " Lumen ob- and without hurry, we will prooood to reply tenebmtum in tentorio eat fortuna domu, to whe.t you he.ve BBid. extinota." And hill oandle 1h11.ll be put out Yer. 8.-Wheretore are we oounted ae with him; r11.ther, as in the Revised Veraion, beutl, The o.llueion is probRbly to oh. his lamp above him shall be put out; i.e. the xvi. 10, where Job epoke of hie "comforters" le.mp which swings above him in hia tent, o.s "!!"A.Ping upon him with their mouthe." or in his chamber, she.11 be extinguished. And reputed vile in your Bight 1 or, reokoned Darkness shall fall upon the whole houae ,mcleafi. Job he.d spoken of his "misere.ble of the wioked man. oomforters '' BB "ungodly and wicked" (oh. Ver. 7.-The 1tep1 of hit 1tren.,th shall xvi. 11), without wisdom (oh. xvii. 10) and be straitened. In the time of his prosperity without understanding (oh. xvii. 4). But the wicked man had a wide sphere within he he.d not ee.id tkat they were "unclee.n." which to exercise his activity, and strode Bilde.d, therefore, misrepl'888nts him. hither and thither at his pl0BBure. When Ver. 4.-Re teareth himself in his anger. punishment falls on him, hie "steps will be The Hebrew idiom, which allows of rapid straitened," i.e. his sphere ne.rrowed, his trnnsilions from the second to the third activity cmmped, his powers "011.bined, person, and tJice tJer•a, CRnnot be transferred cribbed., confined." And his own oounsel without harshness to our modern speech. shall out him down (see eh. v. IS; and Our Revisers he.ve given the true force of comp. Ps. vii. 14-16; ix. 16; x. 2; Hoa. the original by disca.rdiug the third person, x. 6). and trausle.ting, "Thon that tee.rest thyself Ver. 8.-For he is oaat into a net by hit in thine anger." There is probably an allu- own feet. He walks of his own accord into sion to eh. :i.vi. 9, where Job had repre- a snare, not necessarily into one that he has sented God BB "tea.ring him in his wrath." himself set for others, as in Ps. vii. 15; ix Bildad says it is not God who tee.re him- 15; x..u:v. 8; I vii. 6; and Prov. xxvi. 27; he tears himself. Shall the earth be forsaken but either into one of his own settiug, or for thee 1 i.e. •• She.11 the course of the world into one laid for him by others (see ver. 10). be altered to meet thy wishes, t-0 suit thy And he walketh upon a snare. A mere case?" Job had wished for all manner of repetition of the idea expressed in the pre- impossible things ( eh. iii. 3-6; i:i.. 32-85; ceding hemistich. xiii. 21, 22; xvi. 21 ; xvii. 3). Bild.ad's Ver. 9.-The gin shall take him by the repr0&0h is thus not wholly unjust. But heel, and the robber (rather, eke man-trap) he makes no allowance for the wild utter- shall prevail againat him. Fifty yeara ago auces of one who is 1.Jalf distraught. And man-traps were commonly set at night· in ahal.l the rook be removed out of his plaoe 1 gardens and orche.rds in tl.Jis country, which SI.Jell that which is most solid and firm give held intending thieves until the proprietor way, and alter its nature? came and took them before a magistrate in the morning. (On the employment of suoh Vel"B. 5-21.-Bildad, from this point, traps in antiquity, see Herod., ii. 121. § 2.) turns wholly to denunciation. He strings Ver. 10.-The em.re is laid for him in the together a long series of menaces-probably ground, and a trap for him in the way; or, ancient saws, drawn from" the wisdom of the nooae ia hid/or him in the ground (see the Reviaed Version). Six different kinds I.he Deni Kedem" (1 Kings iv. 30), and d&- of traps or snares are mentioned, "the 1Criptive of the wretched fate of the wicked speaker heaping together every word th11t man. with whom he identifies Job. he can find descriptive of the art of snaring." The art had been well studied by the Egyp- Ver. 5.-Yea, the light of the wioked Bha.11 tians long before the age of Job, and a be put out. WJiatever the wicked me.n may great variety of contrivances for capturing at any time have acquired of splendour, botl.J beasts and birds are represeuted on glory, honour, wealth, or prosperity, shall the very e11rly monuments (Wilkinson, in be taken from him, li.Ild aa it were extin- the author's• Herodotua,' vol. ii pp. 77, 78), guished. And the 11pa.rk of hill fire shall We may conclude from this passage tl.Jat it not shine. Not a single trace of his splen- had also been brought to an advanced ste.ge dour, not a spa.rk, not a glimmer, shall of excellence in Syria and Are.bia. remain. Ver. 11.-Terron shall make him afraid Ver. 6.-The light shall be dark in hit on every 1ide. Vague fee.re, panic terrors, t&bernacle. This is -not, as Rosenmiiller no longer subjective, but to bis bewildered IUil!eris, a mere repetition of the thought brain objective, shall seem to meno.oe the eontained in the preceding verse with a wicked man on every side, and shall affright change of t.erms, and a variation of meta- him continually. 'fhere is an allusion, phor. It is a denunciation of woe to the donbtleas, to what Job he.s said of tQ@ 011, XVIII, 1-21.] THE BOOK OF JOB. 309