First: Instead of pity they gave him unsympathetic talk. Had they wept and said nothing he would have been comforted; or had they spoken to the point and expressed sympathy he might have been comforted; or had they tenderly acknowledged the mystery of the Divine procedure in all, it might have soothed in some measure his anguished heart. But Eliphaz talked grandly and perhaps with a cold heart, he never touched the mark but by implication, charged him with being a great sinner because he was a great sufferer, and strongly reprobated his language of distress. Where Job expected pity, tenderness, love, he only met with cold and unsympathetic words. Secondly: Instead of pity they gave him intrusive talk. "Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?" &c. "If a man applies to his friends for pecuniary aid, and that aid is refused him, he may be disappointed, but he cannot at once condemn them and charge them with unkindness, as they may be under circumstances which render it perfectly impossible for them to comply with his request. But if he asks of them nothing but commiseration and sympathy, and even these are denied him, he cannot but consider such denial as a great piece of inhumanity and cruelty. Now this was precisely the case with Job." Thirdly: Instead of pity they gave him irrelevant talk. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?" In all this he evidently reproves Eliphaz for the irrelevancy of his talk. He seems to say, You have not taught me anything, you have not explained the true cause of my affliction. I am ready to learn-ready to be corrected if I am in error. But you have only given me words that have no application to my case. Give me right words, and I shall feel their force; but what does your argument prove? You do not touch the point. Nothing that you have said is applicable to me in my miserable condition. Fourthly: Instead of pity they gave him ungenerous talk. Here the patriarch acknowledges that the extravagant language which, in the wildness of his anguish, he used in "Do you imagine to the 4th chapter was mere "wind." reprove words?" &c. He states that their carping at such utterances was as cruel as the overwhelming of the fatherless. Language spoken in certain moods of mind, should be allowed to pass by, almost without notice. Anguish often maddens the mind, and causes the tongue to run riot. It is ungenerous in friends to notice language which, under the tide of strong emotions, may be forced from us. (1) He urges them to look upon him and not at his words. "Now therefore be content, look upon me." Look at my face, examine my past history, and see what iniquity you can discover in me. (2) He assures them of the sincerity even of his language. "Is there any iniquity in my tongue?" As if he had said, though I may have spoken inconsiderately and extravagantly, there is no hypocrisy in my speech. "Cannot my taste discern perverse things?" I have an inner sense by which I can determine what is right or wrong in speech. CONCLUSION: Mistaken friendship is often an offence and an injury to men in trouble. It comes with a glib tongue, but with an icy heart: its words are often irrelevant, they never touch the point, and throw no light upon our darkness: not unfrequently does it enter our chamber of affliction intrusively and unasked, and begin to criticize words that we have spoken in the wild fury of a nature wrapped in anguish. Mistaken friendship is sometimes as pernicious and irritating as false friendship. HOMILY No. XV. JOB'S REPLY TO THE FIRST SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ. (3.) LIFE BURDENSOME and brief. "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his days also like the days of an hireling?" &c.-CHAP. vii. 1–6. GENERAL NOTE.-"This chapter rises quite naturally out of the final verses of the preceding. The two thoughts there were, that the friends ought to proceed to consider and judge Job's case on other grounds than their hypothesis of his sin, which was false: and that he surely knew himself best, and whether the Divine treatment of him was just or not, which it was not: nay, he proceeds, the Divine treatment of men altogether was harsh and cruel, and man's lot miserable and enslaved, and in antithesis to the seductive portrait drawn by Eliphaz, of the Divine Father of his children (chap. v.). Job paints another, of the Divine Taskmaster driving his worn-out and lacerated slaves."Professor Davidson. EXEGETICAL REMARKS. Ver. 1. "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?" In the margin "warfare;" some read service." "Are not his days also like the days of an hireling?” or “Truly as the days of an hireling are his days." The idea is, as a hired servant continues only for a specified period with his employer, so the Great Master has given man an allotted time on earth. Ver. 2.-"As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work." "As a slave who pants for he shadow, and as a hireling longs for his wages."-Professor David son. The idea is, that as the slave toiling in the heat of day pants for the cooling shade of evening, and eagerly anticipates the reward of his labours, so he anxiously desired the termination of his mortal life. Ver. 3.-" So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me." Some read for "wearisome nights," "nights of trouble." The idea perhaps is, whatever may have been my longings, I have been doomed to a life that is not only worthless but full of trouble. Ver. 4.- -"When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone?" The two clauses should be separated thus: "When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? And the evening is lengthened out," &c. Dr. S. Davidson. All who know what affliction is understand this the anxieties which suffering prompts for the first breaking of the dawn. "I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day." Some reckon it "until the morning breeze," others, " until the morning twilight." Ver. 5.-" My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome." My skin heals up to fester again."-Delitzsch. "My skin stiffens and runs again."-Professor Davidson. He appears to allude to the state of his skin induced by his disease, for it is well known that in elephantiasis (as occurring in hot countries) the skin becomes of a muddy hue, thickened and indurated (like that of the elephant), so as to have very much the appearance of the ground when dried up and cracked by the heat. With regard to the worms, it is said that, after ulceration has occurred in the progress of the disease, worms are bred in great numbers in the ulcers. Job's body then being covered with such ulcers, would swarm with worms. Ver. 6." My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope." "My days are filled up more speedily than the web, and are closed without hope." -Dr. Lee. The idea is the fleetness of life. HOMILETICS.-In these verses Job enters into detail concerning his great sufferings. He does so in all probability in order that his friends might make some allowance for his distraction, and might not be surprised at the vehement language which he was about to address to the Almighty God. He indicates in these verses that his life was burdensome and brief. He felt his life to be I. BURDENSOME. He speaks of his life-First: As a hard servitude. "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?" A "hard service" upon earth. Whether he alludes to a military service, an agricultural service, or some other particular kind of service, matters not. Life is a servitude. The Great Task-master gets work of some kind out of every human life. "As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work." Eagerly he desired his day of life to close, that he might lay down the heavy implements of labour, and retire into the rest of the grave. In Oriental lands, where the sun's rays come down like fire on the burning sands, how refreshing and how delicious the shadow of a rock or a tree, especially to him who has been labouring under the hot sky! eagerly as such a labourer longed for such a shadow, so Job yearned for the grave. Never did soldier in the heat of battle long more for the warfare to be over, or the labourer under the burning sun for the day to close, than did Job long for death. waiting for the allotted period. Secondly: As spent worthlessly. He felt weary with He speaks of his life"So am I made to possess months of vanity." Deeply did he feel that he did not realize the true ideal of life, that his powers were wasted, his desires were unsatisfied. What thoughtful man does not feel that his earthly life here is but vanity! Man organized for wonderful achievements, but involved in trifles. Verily the human creature is made subject to vanity. He speaks of his life : Thirdly As physically afflicted. "Wearisome nights are appointed to me.' The weight of his sufferings pressed on him as an intolerable load. Life with many men in every age grows wearisome, and the desire to be freed from it often becomes strong and vehement. Job felt that the allotted period of his life was too long for endurance. "When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day." We retire to bed hoping to get that refreshing sleep which kind nature has provided for the wearied and the suffering, and when it comes not, our physical condition is injured, rather than improved. So great were the patriarch's sufferings, that sleep never came with its soothing breath and balm to him: he rolled in agony during the night, looking earnestly for the first grey beams of the morning. One of the curses enumerated in the Book of Deuteronomy seemed to rest upon him. "In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even; and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning." How could he rest with his body in the condition here described ? My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome." He felt his life to be II. BRIEF." My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope." "It was common," says one, "to compare life with a web, which was filled up with the successive days. The ancient classic writers spoke of it as a web woven by the Fates. We can all feel the force of the comparison here used by Job, that the days which we live fly swiftly away. How rapidly is one after another added to the web of life! How soon will the whole web be filled up, and life be closed! A few more shoots of the shuttle and all will be over, and our life will be cut off, as |