The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 398

because unable to st&nd before the 'Violenoe of their invaders. (1) Leading a greg1nloua ond wandering life, like wild nsses in tbA dt>sert, like the vagrant gipsies of modern time~, rising up early and going forth in search of food with an e.ppetite e.s keen as if they were hunting prey, with infinite labour extracting a eoe.nty subsistence for them• 11elve~ and children from the innutritious roots and herbs of the inhospitable steppe. (2) En,!aging in the lowest forms of menial service, being obliged to hire themselves out as day labourers, and the only work available for them being the cutting of fodder for the rich man's cattle-n_ot the better so_rts '?f grain, lest they _11hould be tempted to pluck and eat; or the ~leanmg of the late npemng grapes of the rich man's vineyard- not the earliest and best, for fear they should seek to quench their thirst by devouring the luscious fruit. (3) Reduced to the saddest state of destitution, being without clothes, so that they must pass the night in a: stripped and naked condition, exposed to the "frequent and continuous storms that visit the monntains," and without homes so that" they embrace the rock for want of a shelter." The second picture (vers. 10 ii) is, if possiulc, more excruciatingly painful in the aspect of wretchedness it presents: It recites the evil hap of those widows' children who have been taken for their mothers' debt, or of the poorer section of the conquering clan themselves who in turn have become victims of the haughty tyrants, and have been reduced to a condition little short of abject slavery. (1) Utter penury. In consequence of the oppressive exactions of their masters, they are compelled to part with the last stitch of clothing, and to slink away in almost entire nudity like a gang of slaves driven to the market or the cotton-field. (2) Utirt'quited toil. Hungry, they must not pluck a handful of ears from their over• seer's cornfield, a privilege not denied to the brute beasts beside them (Deut. xxv. 4), 'l'hirsty, they dare not moisten their parched tongues with the must running from the presses as they squeeze out the oil and tread down the grapes. The abominable wicked- ness of exacting labour without remuneration (md that also adequate), as is done in Blavery, is severely reprehended in Scripture (Lev. xi:x. 13; Deut. :xxiv. 14, 15; Jer. :u:iL 13; Jas. v. 4). The third picture (ver. 12) alludes to the miseries of a densely populated city, where (1) oppression reigns as fierce and intolerable as exists in the country, causing men to groan in anguish-a description not exclusively applicable to an ancient Arabian town suddenly invaded by hordes of freebooters, but finding also too faithful realization in the great cities and large centres of population belonging to the nineteenth Cbristim century, in which the same spectacle is still seen, of the strong trampling on the weak, the rich on the poor, the lordly and tyrannical on the plebeian and servile; anc. where (2) strife rages, leading not unfrequcntly to bloodshed e.nd murder, in which the soul of the wounded mourns-a state of things as often seen to- day as it was some five or six thousand yea.re ago, nothing being so characteristic of the present times as just the internecine warfare existing between the various classes of BOCiety, and leading as a natural result to a prolific development of crimes against the person and estate. And all this sweltering abomination, this moral putridity, social disorder, and civil corruption which infests both town and country, the Almighty appears to be as indifferent to as he was in the days of Job (Ps. I. 21). HI. .A:B UBGE!.'T QUESTION ASKED. Why does not God call wicked men to account? 1. Nat for want of power. Otherwise he would not be Shaddai, the Almighty, the all- powerful and all-sufficient Deity, whose ability to perform bis counsel Job bas just commented on (eh. :xxiiL 13). 2. Not for lack of knowledge. Job's atheistical con- temporaries supposed that mundane affairs were concealed from the gaze of him who walked upon the circuit of the heavens, and whose feet were wrapped about with clouds (cL. xxil. 13); but Job a.ad his friends alike admitted that times, i.e. at any rate the main evenu and circumstances of terrestrial history, were not :tJdden from Shaddai's omniscient glance ( ,·er. 1, Authorized Version). 3. Not for want of right. Both parties in the present controversy recognize th&t such appalling wicledness should not be 1uffered to go for ever unchallenged and unpunished, that such detestable criminals as above described ought to be arrested and brought before the tribunal of Heaven. Nay, on the theory of the friends, these workers of iniquity ought at once to be called to account. Yet notoriow;ly, says Job, they are not. Hence it can only be: 4. For lack of will. It is not God'ti intention to hold a circuit court here on earth, e.nd try men for their mi.ad.t:eds. In other words, the Divine government is not, so far e.s this world iii concerned, IMI the friends contended, strictly retributive. OD, IXIV, 1-26.] THE BOOK OF JOB.