The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 487

th!' bone of the upper arm, nnd oome away Anoieut Egypt,' vol. I. pp. 842~64). In from it. the_ ~abylonian e.nd Aesytie.u religion the Ver. 28.-l'or de11truotion f'rom God was a position of the eun-god wee Ieee prominel\t, teJTOr to me. I tlOOld not, i.e., have eoted in but etill, e.e San, or Shamee, he held nn the way charged apinst me by Elipbez, important plaoe, and was the me.In objeo\ eince I was alwevs ~od-fee.ring, and should of religious veneration to n large body of have been deterred, if by nothing else, et worshippers (' Ancient Monnrohiee,' vol. i. any rat<' by dread of the Divine vengeance. pp. 126-128; vol. ii. pp. 17, 18). In tho And by reuon of his highn88B I oonld not '\>edio system the sun figured ae Mitre., 1111d endure. God's maj88ty and excellency a.re in the Zoroastrian as Mithra, in both holding finch that I could not have bad the face to a high position. Among the Are.bie.ns the resist them. If I bed hegnn such a course mn, worshipped as Orotal, is said to havo of life as Eliphe.z laid to my charge (eh. been anciently the only god, though he was xxii. 5-9), I could not have persisted in it. acoompanied by a female principle ne,med Ver. 24.-If I have made gold my hope. Alilat (Herod., iii. 8). Or the moon walking This is a sin with which the patriarch bad in brightneBB, The worship of the moon not been directly charged. But it bed been he.s, in most countries where it has pre- more or less insinuated (see eh. xv. 28; vailed, been quite secondary and subordioato xx. 10, 15, 19; xxii. 24, cto.). He may also, to that of the sun. In Egypt, while nine perhaps, have felt some incline.tion to it. gods are more or less identified with the Or have said to the :fine gold, Thou e.rt my solar luminary, two only, Khons o.nd Thoth, oon1ldenoe. (On the wicked man's trust can be said to represent the moon. lo the in riohes, see Ps. xliL 6 ; Iii. 7; )xii. 10; Ve.die and Zoroastrian systems the moon, Mark x. 24; Luke xii. Hi-19.) called Some., or Homa, almost dropped out of Ver. 25.-If I rejoioed because my wealth the popular religion, at 11,oy rate 11,s e. moon- WBB great, and beoe.use mine hand had god. In the .Arabian, Alilat, a goddess, gott11J1. muoh. Job feels the.t it is wrong probably represented the moon, as did Ash- even t.o care greatly for wealth. He seems toreth, a goddess, in the Phceuioian. In almost to anticipe.te the saying of St. Paul, Assyria, however, and in Babylonia, moori- that "covet.ousness is idolatry" (Col. iii. 5); worship held a higher position, Sin, the and hence he passes on withoot pause from moon-god, taking precedence over She,mas, this sort of creature-worship to others com- the sun-god, and being e. very much more mon in his day (vers. 26, 27), which he important personage (see 'Ancient Mon- likewise disclaims. archies,' vol. i. pp. 123-126 ; vol. ii. pp. ,er. 26.-If I beheld the mn when it 16, 17). Thus both moon-worship and sun- ahined ; likrally, the light; ie. the great worship were preve,lent 11,mong all, or almost light, which God made to rule the day all, Job's neighbours. , (Gen. i. 16). Sun-worship, the least ignoble Ver. 27.-And my heart bath been eeoretly form of idolatry, was widely spread in the enticed, or my month hath kissed my hand. East, and in Egypt, from a very early date. The sin of the heart is pln.ced first, as the Aocording to the views of some, the religion joM et origo mali, the spirituo.l. root of the of the Egyptians wu little else than a com- matter. On this ne.ture.lly follows the out- plic:at.ed llllll-worshi.p from its earliest incep- ward act which, in the case of idolatry, was tion io itB very le.t.est phase. "The religious oommonly the act exactly expressed by the notions of the Egyptie.ns," se.ys Dr. Birch, word•• adore "-the movement of the he,nd "were chiefly connected with the worship of to the mouth in token of reverence and the sun, with whom at a later period all the honoW' (see Pliny, 'Hist. Nat.,' :x.xvili. 2, principal deities were connected. .As Har, " Inter e.dorandam dezteram ad oscu.lum or He.rm.o.chis, he represented the youthful referimiu, et totnm corpus circumagimas ; " or rising sun; as Ra, the midday; e.nd as and Minucius Felix, 'Octav.,' ii., " Cmcilius, Tnm, the setting sun. .According to Egyp- simulacro Serapidis denotato, ut vulgus tio.n notiona, that god floated in a boat superstitiosum solet, manum ori ad11101Jena tbrongh the sky or celestial ether, and osculum labiis pressit "). descended io the dark regions of night, or Ver. 28.-This alsa were an iniquity to be Had~. Many deities attended on Lis pas- punished by the judge (see the comment &,,ge or were connected with his worship, on ver. 11, adfln.). It is rightly concluded and the gods Amen and Khepr, who repre- from this expression that, in the country sented the inviBible and self-produced god, and age of Job, the sort of idols.try which were identified with the sun " (' Egypt from is here mentioned we.e practised b;y some, the Earliest Times,' lntroduction, pp. ix., x.). and also that it was legally pumshe,ble, Even those who do not go these lengtha !'or I sbould have denied the God that is admit that the 101.ar worship was, at any above. The worship of any other god rate, e. very me.in element in the cult of besides the supreme God is, practically, Egypt (see the authoi1 • Hi.story of atheism, since " no man oe.n sene two OH. xhi. 1--40.J THE BOOK or JOB. 503