EXEGETICAL REMARKS. In this chapter the argument, so far as Job is concerned, is closed. He speaks no more; nor do either of his three friends appear again in discussion. The patriarch here refers to his private life, and he vindicates it modestly and minutely. In (chap. xxix.) he had asserted his official virtues as emir, or magistrate; here he declares his virtues in private life. He concludes the whole series of discourses with a solemn protestation of his integrity in all relative duties. This whole discourse may be regarded as containing a complete code of patriarchal duty. It is worthy of note that no reference whatever is made to any of the religious or ethical institutions of Israel. Here he anticipates the language of Christ (Matt. xxv. 5-28).

Ver. 1.-"I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" Here he asserts that chastity was with him a fixed purpose.

Ver. 2.-" For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?" This verse implies his belief that had he not been pure and unlascivious in purpose he could have no hope from his Maker.

Ver. 3.-" Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?" He means, Is there not Divine punishment for the incontinent?

Is not unchastity a sin which the Almighty will visit with sore displeasure? There is in all probability a spirit of complaint here against the Almighty. He seems to say, Though I am free from the taint of unchastity, yet the Almighty afflicts me; that has come to me which properly should have fallen on the wicked only. He avows an absolute mastery over concupiscence.

Ver. 4.-" Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?" It cannot be that I suffer because He does not know the purity of my life. He knows me thoroughly, sees my ways, counts my steps.

Vers. 5, 6.-" If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity." Have I followed after vanity, or hath my foot hasted after deceit, let Him weigh me in just balances, and then will He know my integrity. means perhaps this, Let God ascertain exactly my character and treat me accordingly. The language is a powerful expression of his conscious purity.

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Vers. 7, 8.—" If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out." If I had not restrained, but yielded to the lustfulness of my eyes, and any blot had

Ver. 11.-" For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges." He regarded adultery as a most flagitious crime; and so does the word of God everywhere. In the earliest times it was a crime punished with death (Gen. xxxviii. 24).

Ver. 12.-" For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase." This may mean that such an offence would be a crime that would provoke God to send destruction like a consuming fire upon the offender.

Vers. 13, 14.-" If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; what then shall I do when God riseth up? and when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?" That is, If I refused justice to any of my servants, what will be done to me when God appears in judgment? Here the patriarch turns from chastity and conjugal fidelity

to his conduct in relation to his servants; and by implication he declares that he had always done his domestics justice-that had he not done so he would have reason to dread the retribution of his Maker.

Ver. 15.-"Did not He that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?" Probably he has here an eye to what Eliphaz had said (chap. xxii. 8), "But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it; implying that Job, in his prosperous days, had been haughty, selfish, and oppressive towards his inferiors.

Vers. 16–18. —“ Iƒ I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (for from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb :)" "If I held back the poor from what they desired, and caused the eyes of the widow to languish, and ate my morsel alone without letting the fatherless eat thereof. No, indeed, from my youth he grew up to me as to a father, and from my mother's womb I guided her."Delitzsch. Eliphaz had charged him (chap. xxii. 6-9) with an utter disregard in the days of his prosperity of the hungry and the naked, the widow and the orphan. Against such an allegation Job here utters his strong protest.

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mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure." Dr. Bernard's rendering of this passage, and his remarks thereon, seem to me most excellent, and in every way way satisfactory. 'Job, having been taxed by Eliphaz with the cruel act of stripping the poor of their clothing and leaving them naked, now repels the accusation, declaring that he had ever done the contrary. He says,- Could I bear any one perishing without clothing, or the needy man without covering?' (ver. 20) 'Did not his loins rather bless me, seeing that he kept himself warm with the fleece of my lambs?' (ver. 21) If I had shaken mine hand against the fatherless,'-if I had threatened him with uplifted arm, because I saw my help in the gate,'—because I was convinced the judges in the forum would side with me if any charge were brought against me, (ver. 22) then ought my shoulder to have fallen from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm ought to have been broken from its bone.'-My forearm should have been severed from my upper arm. So cruel did it appear to Job even to menace a fatherless child with a blow, that he thinks the member employed in the act should at once, and without delay, by the miraculous interposition of Providence, have dropped from its body. But, if it had entered my mind to behave so cruelly towards an orphan, it would not have been the fear of punishment that the judges who sit in the gate could have assigned me, that would have deterred me, but the dread of punishment of Him who sits a Judge on high.-(ver. 23 'Surely calamity from God was terror to me.' The penalty

which He most certainly and most deservedly would have exacted from me-that was what deterred me,'And on account of His majesty I could not act so.' I could not possibly bring myself to commit such a cowardly and dastardly act in the presence of so majestic a Being as God."

Vers. 24, 25.-" If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence ; if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much." Eliphaz (chap. xxii. 23) had admonished Job to despise riches, and to treat gold as he would dust and pebbles. In these words the patriarch shows that such an admonition was uncalled for; he had never made gold his trust, never boasted of his possessions.

Vers 26-28. "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." This means, If I have worshipped the heavenly luminaries, the sun in his splendour, the moon walking in its brightness, I should have been guilty of a crime, exposing me to the punishment of the judge, "for I should have denied the God of heaven." "Sabaism (from tsaba, the heavenly hosts,) was the earliest form of false worship. God is hence called, in contradistinction, 'Lord of Sabaoth.' The sun, moon, and stars, the brightest objects in nature, and seen everywhere, were supposed to be visible representatives of the invisible God. They had no temples, but were worshipped on high places and roofs of houses (Ezek. viii. 16; Deut. iv. 19; 2 Kings xxiii. 5-11). The Hebrew

(i) here for 'sun' is light, which was worshipped as the emanation from God before its embodiments, the sun, &c. This worship prevailed in Chaldea; wherefore Job's exemption from the idolatry of his neighbours was the more exemplary. Our Sunday, Monday,' or Moonday, bear traces of Sabaism." Faussett. See also some excellent remarks on idolatrous practices in Job's day by Wemyss.

Vers. 29-31. -"If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh we cannot be satisfied." In chapter viii. 22, Bildad, in offering consolation, had held out to Job the hope that he would see his enemies reduced to shame and confusion. Perhaps the patriarch alludes to this now, in asserting that he had never rejoiced in the destruction of his enemies. Nay, had never even suffered his mouth to sin by imprecating a curse on them. And all this notwithstanding the wish of his domestics,-the men of my tabernacle,-who said, "Oh that we had of his flesh!" that is, the flesh of his enemy, cannot be satisfied." "Did not the inmates of my tent say, 'All that we had of his—that is, the enemy's -the flesh, we could not be satisfied with it'? Our hatred of him is so great, that we could never tire of eating his flesh."-Dr. Bernard.

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Ver. 32." The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller." Here again he avows his hospitality even to strangers. "My doors I open to the trveller."

Vers. 33, 34.-" If I covered my ransgressions as Adam [margin

"after the manner of men"], by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom : did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?" Noyes, Bernard, and others adopt the marginal rendering, meaning, "as men are generally wont to do."-Dr. Samuel Davidson. Eliphaz (chap. xv. 5) had charged Job with insincerity; and probably the language here is intended as a protest against this allegation. Job means to say, that he could not be a hypocrite, that his nature was to be frank and open; that neither the manner of men, the dread of the multitude, nor the contempt of families, could, induce him to be anything but frank and open.

Vers. 35, 36.—“Oh that one would hear me ! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me." "Oh that I had one who would hear me, behold my signature, the Almighty would answer me and the writing which my opponent hath written." Delitzsch. The wish here Job had already frequently expressed; so profoundly conscious was he of his innocence, that he earnestly desired the Almighty to write down all the charges that were brought against him, and to have the matter settled. If he had those charges written down, he would so value the document that he would carry it on his shoulders and bind it as a diadem. "So confident am I that the history of my life, even though written by my adversary himself, would prove me innocent, that I will on no account let the book go. Nay, I will carry it about with me, and make it my glory and my boast."