The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 596

of the Divine venge11noe (see Exod. ix. 18- wasted, even on the bare sands of the 29; ll, 5-15; Josh. x. 11; Ps. xviii. 12, Sah11ra, or the rngged rocks of Tierra dcl 13; In viii. 17, 1!1; cv, 82; lea. xxx. 30; Fnego. It mBy have uees which are beyond xuil, 19; Ezek. xiii. 11, 13; xxxvi. 22; our cognize.nce. And to oanae the bud of H11g. ii. 17; Rev, viii. 7; xi. 19; xvi. 21), the tender herb to apring forth. Where the Its destructive effect upon crops, even in rain produces herbage, it is certainly of use, tempero.te latitudes, is indic11tu<l by the in- for wherever there is herbage there e.re surances against damage from hail, which, always insects, whose enjoyment of life he.a even in our own country, so many farmers every appearance of Leing intense. think it worth their while to pay. In Ver. 28.-He.th the rain e. father l or tropical and semi-tropico.l regions the injury who bath begotten the drops of dew 1 How caused by hailet.orms is far greater. Against do rain and dew come into existence? Can the day of battle and war. Compare espe- Job make them, or any other man? Can oially Josh, x. 11, which, however, we need man even conceive of the process by which not suppose to have been in the mind of they were ma.de? If not, must not their the writer. In ancient times, when the Maker, who is God, be wholly inacrutable? bow held the place in wo.r which is now Ver. 29.-0ut of whose womb came the oooupied by the rifle or the musket, a heavy ioe 1 Modem scientists admit that the pro- hail•torm, striking full in the fe.ce of the cess by which a liquid is metamorphosed oombe.tants on one side, while it only fell on into a solid transcends their utmost power the b11cke of their e.d ve111ariee, must often of thought. They know nothing more than have decided a he.ttle. the fact that at the temperature of 32° Ver. 24.-By what way is the light Fahr. water, and at other temperatures parted t -or, distribu!ed., so as to be enjoyed other liquids, a.re solidified (see an article by all the inhabitants of the ee.rth (Stanley by Professor Tyndall on the generation of Lee.thee). Which soattereth, etc.; re.ther, a snowflake in the Comemporary Review of or by what way ,is the east wind scattered 1880). It is thus not only creation itself, O'UB1' the earth? (see the Revised Version). but the transformations of created things, Job is asked to explain God's modus ope- that transcend the scientific intellect and randi in nature, which, of course, he cannot are inexplicable. And the hoary frost of do. Hence hie answer in eh. xl. 5. heaven, who ha.th gendered it 1 This is the Ver. 25.-Who hath divided a water-oourse same question as that of the previous clause, for the overflowing of waters l rather, as in expressed in different words. the Revised Version, Who hath cleft a channel Ver. 30,-The waters are hid e.s with a /or the water-flood. f ie. Who has fonowed stone; rather, the waters are hariiened, lika and seamed the ground (in Western Asia) unto stone. When lhe frost comes, the with deep gullies, or " water-courses," for we.ters are congealed and rendered as hard the rapid carrying off of the violent re.ins as stone. (So Dillmann and Ca.non Cook.) to which those 1·egions are subject? The And the faoe of the deep is frozen. By " the wadies of Syria and Arabia seem to be deep" (ci;ir-,) is certainly not meant here alluded to. They too are God's work, not either the open ocee.n, which, in the lati- Job's. Or a way for the lightning of tudes known to the dwellers in South- thllllder 1 The " way" for the passage of WestemAsia, never freezes, or the Mediter- the electric current is not marked out before- ranean. Some of the le.kes whillh abound hand, like the way for the escape of the in the regions inhabited by Job and his superfluous waters; but it is eqnally deter- friends are probably moont. These may mined on and arre.nged previously by God, oocasione.lly ha.ve been thinly coated with who has laid down the le.ws which it is ice in the times when the Book of Job was bound to follow. written (see the comment on eh. vi. 16). Ver. 26.-To oause it to rain on the earth, Ver. 31.-CBllSt thou bind the sweet in- where no man is; on the wildemess, wherein fluenoes of Pleiades l (On the aJmost certain there is no man, God not only ea.uses his identification of the Hebrew Kimah with rain to fall equo.lly on the just and on the the Pleiades, see the comment on eh. ix. unjust (Matt. v. 45), but equally, or almost 9.) Whether the "sweet influences " of the equally, on inhabited le.ode and uninhabited. constellation are here spoken of i.-, very His providence does not limit itself to sup- doubtful. Schultens and Professor Lee plying the wants of mo.n, but has tender support the rendering; but most cri ties pre- regard to the beasts, and birds, and reptiles, fer to translate the word employed ( □•;,J,'D) and insects which possess the lands whereon by "chains" or" fastenings" (Rashi, Kimchi, man he.a not yet set his foot. Rosenmiiller, Dillmaun, Canon Cook). If Ver. 27.-To satisfy the desolate and waste we adopt this view, we must suppose the ground. Parched ground seems to cry aloud invi8iblo links wl,ich llllite the stars into for water, and so to Iilo.ke a piteous appeal a con~tella.tiou to be intended. Job is asked to Heave.u. Perhaps rain is not wholly whether he 011,u draw the lillk11 near1;r to-  612 THE BOOK OF JOB. [ou. xxxvm. 1--41,