which ml'ILns probably a certain weight of dye (antimony) with whioh Oriental women silver, though whethl'T e. shekel or not is have from a remote antiquity been in the uncertain. The word belonge to the eArlier habit of anointing the upper and lower Hehr<>w, being found only in Gen. xxxiii. eyelids in order to give lustre to the eye 19: ,Josh. xxiv. 82. and in tile present (compare t.he • Pulpit Commentary' on the pas•age. Ear-ring11 were C('lmmonly worn in 'Second Book of Kings,' p. 194). The throe the Ea•t by m<'n e.s well as women, as e.ppean; n1tmc>s, according to Oriental notions, implied from the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian either sweetne&B or beauty, sculpt urea. \'er. 15.-And in all the land were no Ver. 12.--& the Lord ble1111Bd the latter women found so fair u the daU1Jhter1 of end of Job more than his beginning (comp. Job. Beauty hiis always been highly vnlued abo,·e. ver. l 0). The rrstomtion of pro~- in the East; and Job would feel himself perit~-. prophesied by Elipbe.i(ch. v.18-26), highly favoured in having three hciiutiful Dil<bd (<'h. viii. 20, 21), and Zophar (eh. daughters. It miiy have been on acoount xi. 13-19), but not expected by Job, came, of their great beauty tbat their father gave not in consequence of any univerB&l law, them inheritance among their brethren, but by tile v,ill of God, and hi" pure grace which we.s certainly an unusual practice in e.nd favour. It in no way pledg-ed God to the E68t. compensate worldly ad1•ersity by worldly Ver. 16.-After this lived Job an hundred prosperity in the C&Be of any other s11fferer; a.nd torty year■. It has been concluded from and cHrtainly the general law seems to be this statement, combined with thiit at the that such e.artLly oompeua&tion is withheld. close of ver.10, that Job was exaotly seventy But. in combiuation with the instinct which years of age when his calamities fell upon demands that retributive justice shall prevail him (' Diet. of tlie Bible,' vol. i. p. 1087, universally, it moy be ta.ken 68 an earnest note); but this is really only a conjeotme, of God's ultimate dealings with men, and a since the statement that "God added to all sure indication that, if not on earth, at least that had been Job's to the double," does in the future st.ate, each man shall receive not naturally apply to anything but his "the deed.E done in the body," according property. We may, however, fairly allow t.o that he bath done, whether it be good or that (as Professor Lee says) he "could evil. For he had (rather, and he had) scarcely have been less than seventy" when tourt.een thoUJl&Ild sheep, and m tho111&11.d his afflictions C&.lJle, having then e. family oam.els, and a thouaand yoke ot ozen, and a of ten children, who were all grown up (eh. thon.sa.nd she-usea. In every oase the exact i. 4). In this case, the whole duration of double of his original possessions (see eh. i. his life would have been 210 years, .or _a a; and comp. above, ver. 12). We need not little more, which cannot be regarded e.s suppose, however, that either the round incredible by those who accept the ages of numbers, or the -.at duplicity, are his- the patriarchs, from Peleg to Ja.cob, as re- torical. spectively 239, 230, 148, 205, 175, 180, and Ver. 18.-Re had alao ■even son■ and 147 yee.n. And saw his sons, and his sons' three daughter&. The eame number as pre- ■ODIi; i.e. his descendants-grandchildren, viously (cb. i. 2), neither more nor fewer. and great-grandchildren. Even four gene- Ver. 14.-.4.nd he called the name of the rations. According to the Hebrew inclUBive flr■t, Jemim&. The name "Jemima" is pro- practice of reckoning, we may regard his bably derived from r,6m (cv), "day," and own generation as included. means "lt'aire.s the day." And the name of the Ver. 17.-Bo J'ob died, being old and full aecond, Jtazia. "Kezia" (rather, "Keziah ") of days. The lowest estimate places the wai, the Hebrew name of the spice which occurrence of the ofllictions of Job at the the Greeks and Bomans called "cassia.," a time when he w68 a little more than fifty spice cl011ely allied to cinnamon, and much (" Supponitur qninqnagenario baud multo ~kerned in the East (see Herod., iii. 110), majorem fuisse Nostrum, quum conflictari And the name of the third, Xerw-happuoh; cmpit,'' Schultens). Thus his age at hill llierally, b.om of mbium-atihiurn being the death would boat ka,t a hundl'ed and ninety.
HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-17.-~ <XJnCUll,BWfl, of the drama. L THE SE'l"l'LEMENT OF THE TJIIBD OOJiTBOVEBSY BETWEEN JEHOVAH AND JOB. (Vera. 1-6.) '!'his controversy, it will be remembered, arose out of the intensity of Job's sufferings aud the perplexity of Job's spirit, which caUBed him on the one hand to form too favourable an opinion of his own, and on the other hand too unfavourable an opinion of God's, right.eousness; t.o misinterpret the facts of providence almost as egregiously as, though in au opposite direction from, the friends; to misapprehend the fundamental principle of the Divine ou. xtn. 1-17.J THE BOOK OF JOB. 666