The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 639

Ver. 10.-None is eo fteroe that dare stir mercy; but who will undertake t<> do it? him up. The orooodile is often seen asleep, Who, again, oan oome to him with his double or nearly asleep, uponsaml-banks waehed by bridle l Come, i.e., with a double bridle in the Nile. He would be a bold man who his hand, and ple.ce it in the monster's jllw.s. should oreep noCLr, and stir him up. Who (So 8ch ul tens and Professl)r Lee.) Others then la able to stand before me 1 Here we trnnslate, "Who will come within [the r,rn "'" rooch tho pQint whereto the whole 11.rgument of] his double bridle?" 1md understand by : hCLs been wo1·king up. If mo.n cnnnot cope "liis double bridle" his two rows of teeth- : with orentures, which are tho work of God's Homer's <p1<os oSJ,,.,....,,, (Rosenmiiller, Cnnon hCLnde, how muoh leBB con he presume to Cook, Professor Stanley Leathes, etc.). cope with him who is their Maker I Ver. 14.-Who can open the doors of his Ver. 11.-Who hath prevented me, that I faoe t Who can make him open his huge, should repay him? i.e. "Who bath laid me gaping jaws, if he chooses to keep them under any obligation, so that I should be shut? Who would dare to do so? Ria bound to fall in with his views, CLnd take teeth are terrible round a.bout. The croco- such a course as he might prescribe?" The dile has "two rows of sharply pointed teeth, allusion is to:Job's persistent demand for e. thirty or more on each side" (Russell's bee.ring-a controversy ( eh. ix. 34, 35 ; x. 3; 'Ancient a.ncl Modern Egypt,' p. 460). They xiii. 3, 22 ; xxiii. 3-7, etc. }-a. trial, in are "so formed and disposed as to tear their which he shall plead with Goel, and God prey rather than mo.stica.te it" (' Diet. Uni- with him, upon even terms aP. it. were, and verselle des Sciences,' p. 447). The voracity so the trnth concerning him, his sins, his of the full-grown crocodile is great; a.nd-he integrity, his suffel'ings, a.nd their ea.use or will not scruple to attack and devour men, causes, shall be made manifest. God resists if they come in his way. The natives of , a.ny and every claim thCLt is made on him to Upper Egypt have a. wholesome terror of him. : justify himself and his doings to a creature. Ver. 15.-His scales a.re his pride; or, He is not a. debtor to any. If he explains his pride is in the channeling of his acal,es ; himself to any extent, if he condescends to (literally, of his shields). The scales of ' give a.Ii account of o.ny of his doings, it is of the crocodile a.re arranged in five rows a.long pure graceancl favour. It has been observed his entire back, with a depression. between. that we might have expected this to be the the rows which is like 11 "channel." Ea.eh conclusion of tho entire discourse begun in individual scale resembles a. shield. They eh. xxxviii.; and that no doubt would have are shut up together as with a close seal; been,. according to ordinury laws of human each. i.e., closely attached to its fellow,so that composition, its more proper place. Bnt there is no space between them. " A. riflc- Hebrew poetry is erratic, and pays little ball," according to Canon Tristmm, "glances regard to logical laws. If anything im- off from them as from a rook" (' Natura.I portant ha.s been omitted in its more proper History of the Bible,' p. 352). place, it is inserted in one which is, humanly Ver. 16.-0ne is so near to another, that speaking, less proper. The details concern- no a.ir can come between them (see the ing the ci;ooodile, which a.re calculo.ted to comment on the preceding verse). deepen the general impression, having been Ver. 17.-They CLre joined one to another, passed over where we might have expected they stick together, that they cannot be them, are here subjoined, as filling out the sundered; literally, they are soldered one to description of vers. 1-10. anothe1' (comp. Isa. xli 7). Ver. 12.-1 will not oonceal his parts, nor Ver. 18.-By his neesin.gs a light doth his power, nor hie oomely proportion. The ahi.ne. " N eesings" is old English for further description ia introduced by this "sneezings." According to Aristotle, the formCLl announcement, which is perhaps crocodile is in the habit of sneezing, but I best rendered, I will not T.eep silence concern- do not find this fa.et noted by modern ing his limbs, nor concerning the matter of his writers. Boohart asserts it very positively might, or the comeli'lless of his proportion (' Hieroz.,' pp. 752-754), but he cloes not {see the Revised Vorsion); i.e. I will enter profess to speak from bis own knowledge. upon these points seriatim, and set them And his eyes are like the eyelids of the forth severally. morning. This probably does not mean Ver. 13.-Who can discover the fa.oe of more tha.u thCLt bis oyes flash with light his garment t Some critics understand this upon occasion, which is no doubt true, though in a. general sense, "Who can lay him open tho oyes, being small, have not generally to assault? " Others suggest a. more defi- uttrnoted very much attention. nite meaning, "Who ca.n strip off his outer Ver. 19.-0ut of his mouth go burning covering?" tho scaly c1Jat, tho.t is, which lamps, nml sparks of fire leap out. The forms his spechil defence, and oxpose the description now becomes highly poetical, comparatively tender skin below? If this and it would be a mistake to endeavour to were done, be would thon be at the hunter's substantiate it. The intention is to repre  856 THE BOOK OF JOB,