The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 331

concealed_ gue~ Zophe.r _repeats t~e popular dogma of the day, the.t "th triutnphlng of the wicked 1s near [hterally, '11 from near'], and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment," Bd.ding that " though his excellency," or exaltation, "mount up into heaven, yet she.II he perish for ever;" words suggestive of (1) the euperfioie.l che.raoter of the irreligious me.n'e happiness, which is commonly derived from things at hand, the cree.ture-comforts by which he is surrounded; (2) the short-lived duration of the wicked me.n's hope, whioh is only" from near," ,.e. of recent origin, and continues but a little IIJ'IICe, being doomed to perish at the cloee of life's brief day at the furthest• (3) tbe seeming elevation of the hypocrite's piety, which often appears to wear e.~ extraordinary aspect of sanctity, setting its head among the clonds, while common uintl! have much &do to walk upon the earth without stumbling (Isa. !xv. 5; Matt. :niii. 14; Luke x:viii. 11); (4) the absolute certainty of the ungodly me.n's overthrow, eince he shall yet be cast down from the loftiest position of security to the lowest depths of degradation (Isa. xiv. 13-16; A.mos ix. 2; Obad. 4); (6) the terrible com- pleteness of the sinner's destruction-he shall perish, and that for ever. Had Zopha.r been a man of tender spirit, instead of a fierce and fiery bigot, he would not have ~ulted with such fiendish delight in a doom so appalling even in imagination. 3. With roried illustration. (1) A coarse metaphor. The wicked man shall perish "like his own dung," i.e. with abhorrence and contempt (1 Kings xiv. 10; 2 Kings ix. 37; Ps. lxxx:iii. 10; Jer. viii. 2)-a sentiment which, although not conveyed in polite language, is sometimes verified in this world in the case of notorious transgressors, and in the next world will certainly prove true of e.11 the ungodly. (2) An impressive image. The prosperous wicked man is likened to an unsubstantial dream, which, with its magical phantasmagoria, highly excites the fancy of the sleeper, but which vanishes, when night is passed, into the limbo of oblivion. What Zophar here affirms of the individual is true of men generally. The sinful life is a tremendous unreality; it may often assume imposing shapes, fa~cinating to beholders; but, after all, is only a pretentious shadow, which will disappear when, at the dawning of eternal day, the good man a.wakes. The pious life alone has solidity and continue.nee. (3) A borrowed text. Zophar plagiarizes a sentiment (ver. 9) from a previous address of Job (eh. vii. 8, 10). Wben preachers e.ppropriate the thoughts of others, they should carefully acknowledge to whom they are indebted. for their wisdom or eloquence. (4) A solemn reflection. That when a wicked me.n dies he commonly bequeaths a. legacy of shame to his descendants, his children being obliged" to please the poor" (ver. 10), i.e. to court the favour of the destitute whom his rapacity has impoverished, and, in his name, so that it might actually be held to be by his hands, to " restore the goods" of those whom his covetonsness and oppression have rednced to beggary. Nothing is more certs.in than that a fa.ther's ungodliness is often visited upon his family (Ezek.. xvili. 2)-a.n argument for parental piety; that the whirligig of time brings strange revenges upon sinners, punishing them by the very inflictions they entailed on others, e.g. reducing their children to beggary as they had reduced the children of others (1 Sam. xv. 33)-a proof of God's overruling providence; that ,ill-gotten gain seldom proves a blessing to ite possessors, mostly bringing misery into a. man's house instead of felicity (Gen. x.ili. 11)-a caution against covetousness; and that God frequently compels the re.stitution of wealth unjustly acquired, sometimes by the power of grace (Luke xix. 8), sometimes by the anguish of remorse (Matt. xxvii. 3-5), some- times by the hand of death (Ps. xxxiL 6), sometimes by the superior craft of others (Gen. xxx. 37)-a reason for honest dealing. (6) A cruel ionucndo. That Job had been wicked in his youth, that Job's bones were even then full of the secret lusts of his early manhood, that at least his physical disease was the direct retribution· of his previous excesses, and that these, his unrepented crimes, were about to descend with him to his grave (ver. 11). Though not applicable to Job, at whom all commentators are agreed it is pointed (of. eh. xiii. 26; xvii. 15, 16), the language conveys a. solemn. warning as to youthful indulgence in sin, (a) its proneness to progress and develop into a licentious and profligate old age; (b) its tendency to avenge itself in time in a diseased body, an enfeebled mind, a premature death; and (c) its certainty, unlesa rei;ented of, abandoned, and forgiven, to lie down with the transgressor in his grave, ay, to accompwy him beyond the grave into the unseen world of eternity. IIL Ali APPBOVED DOCTBlNa EIU'OBCED, 1, The picture of a sin,ful epir,ure. (Vert. OR, XX, 1-29.] THE BoOK OF j013. 345