done, nor of any disrespect on my part towards God, for my prayer also was pure. The prayers I addressed to Him in the days of my prosperity, and particularly at the time I offered up the sacrifices, according to the number of my sons, were not mere outward show, but were made in all sincerity of heart. In his complaint of the undeservedness of his sufferings, three things are to be observed. (1) Deprecation. Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." In other portions of the Scripture we have impassioned appeals to the earth (Isaiah i. 2). Strong emotions often personify the impersonal, invest dead nature with the attributes of intelligence and heart. Job felt himself in his sufferings to be an injured man; and those injuries he wished not to be hid, but to be exposed to the eyes of men, and to be known everywhere. He would not have the earth to hide him, nor the universe to obstruct his cries; "Let my cry have no place," let its echoes not stop anywhere, but vibrate through immensity. This is natural. A man conscious of injuries wishes his injuries known-known that love may sympathize and that justice may avenge. Another thing to be observed here is-(2) Assurance. Behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." Or, as some render it, " my testimony is in high heaven," or as in the margin, "in the high places." He means, I appeal to Omniscience to prove my sincerity. God knows! Injured men, humanity everywhere, groaning under a sense of injustice, involuntarily appeal to heaven. My injuries are known in high places; and from high places I shall have justice ere long. Another thing to be observed is— (3) Supplication. "My friends scorn me, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God." Mark-(a) The earnestness of his prayers," Poureth out tears." Though men scorned him, he believed in a sympathizing God, and unto Him he turns and pours out his soul in tears. Tears are the best prayers. No devout expressions, no liturgical language, has such influence in heaven as tears. Tears are electric with the best natures here and are they not so with the Highest? Mark (6) The subject of his prayers. "O that one might plead for a man with God!" His idea seems to be, that there might be some one to come forward and plead in favour of 66 man before God, as every man ought to plead in favour of his fellow. As man should interpose on behalf of him to whom injustice is done, he would that some one would plead on his behalf with God. The patriarch here ignorantly conceives the Almighty to be influenced as man is. Eternal justice requires no one to plead in order to get the right done. Eternal love requires no one to plead in order to get mercy shown. (c) The urgency of his prayers. "When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return." I want redress and relief now; it will soon be too late. I shall soon be gone from the earth altogether, never, never to return. This language represents the condition of all men. All are going the way whence they shall not return. Job did not wish to die overwhelmed by calamities and reproaches. He desired the reproaches of his friends to be wiped away, and his character cleared up before his contemporaries. This also is natural. Who would wish his sun to go down under a cloud? Who would wish to leave the world with a stain on his reputation? He who leaves behind him an untarnished name is a benefactor to his race. The memorials of the sainted dead float about the atmosphere of the world charged with genial and fertilizing showers. Yes, their virtues HOMILY No. XLI. JOB'S SECOND REPLY TO ELIPHAZ, IN WHICH HE REPROVES HIS FRIENDS OF UNMERCIFULNESS. (2.) HIS THREEFOLD ADDRESS. My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me," &c.-CHAP. xvii. 1-16. GENERAL NOTE. Here Job continues his address, and concludes (verses 11-16) in a spirit of utter hopelessness, so far as life is concerned. Ver. 1. EXEGETICAL REMARKS. "My breath is corrupt." Does he by this express the idea that his breath was foetid and foul? We are told that in the case of elephantiasis in the East the breath becomes exceedingly offensive. Or does he mean that his vital powers were nearly gone? We think the latter. The Chaldean sense of the verb suggests this; and in the margin the expression is, "spirit is spent." He means to say that his life was all but gone. "My days are extinct." A repetition of the idea. "The graves are ready for me." This expression is more forcible when the word ready is omitted. The grave is already Job's. He feels that he belongs to it, and it to him. Ver. 2.- -"Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?" The meaning of these words seems to be, that his observation of their wickedness was so constant that he could not be deceived. He was constantly witnessing their endeavours to excite and provoke him. Ver. 3.-"Lay down now, put me in a surety with Thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?" This is an appeal to God, strange, if not irreverent. To understand its meaning, it is necessary to remember that Job had more than once complained that a man ought not to suffer from Heaven without having an opportunity of pleading his cause. He seems to have had the idea that, as a criminal is tried at a human tribunal before he is condemned, so he ought to be tried before the Divine bar, and allowed a fair explanation and defence. Indeed, in chap. xiii. 18-21, he declares himself prepared for such a trial, and expresses a wish that in such a trial a man may be allowed an advocate to represent his cause. He now seems to go farther, and to express a desire that God would remit him to bail until the time for trial came. Hence Dr. Bernard translates the verse, "Order it thus, I pray Thee who is there else that will strike hands for me?" No man can I find generous enough to bail me, I look to Thee. Ver. 4.-" For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt Thou not exalt them." He here refers to his three friends, and declares that the Almighty had so darkened their understanding about the great question in debate, that he would not exalt them to the honour of pronouncing a right deci sion on his character and deserts. Ver. 5.-" He that speaketh flat tery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail." This is a most difficult verse. Schultens says this verse is "a gordian knot,” hence all translators vary. Noyes:-“ He that delivers up his friend as a prey, the eyes of his children shall fail." Wemyss, nearly the same. Goode: -"He that rebuketh his friends with mildness, even the eyes of his children shall be accomplished." Sept. :-" He announces evil for his portion, his eyes fail over his sons." Vulg."He promises spoil to his companions, and the eyes of his sons fail." Scott joins the first word of this verse with the preceding verse. The Syr. the same. "The right translation is, 'One betrays friends to the lot, and the eyes of his sons pine away.' This general sentiment is meant for Job himself, who is betrayed by his friends, abandoned to the lot like a prisoner, while his innocent children look on and perish with him.'"Dr. Samuel Davidson. "I am an Ver. 6.-" He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret." object of spitting in the face."-Canon Cook. "Me has he placed for a byword among the people, I am an object of scorn before their face."-Barnes. The word "tabret" is an unfortunate rendering. Abhorrence is the idea. Ver. 7.-" Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow." A representation, this, of the physical condition to which he was reduced by reason of his sufferings:-Eyes worn out with weeping, and limbs a mere shadow or skeleton of his former self. Ver. 8.- "Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite." He means to say, that good men would be amazed at the cruelty of his friends, and bestir themselves against hypocrites. Ver. 9. "The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." "Clean hands," here as elsewhere, denote a pure life. Although Job has here a special reference to himself, and means to say he was a good man and would therefore hold on his way and become stronger and stronger; yet the language might become proverbial, and is certainly of universal application. Good men will hold on and progress. Ver. 10.-" But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you." Job, having concluded his address to God, now turns and speaks to his so-called friends. The paraphrase of Dr. Bernard on these words seems as faithful as it is spirited. "In spite of the upright man, who would be amazed; in spite of the innocent man, who would bestir himself against the hypocrite; in spite of the just man, who would hold fast his way, and him, clean of hands, whose fortitude would be increased, ye would come back with your empty arguments. Nothing would deter you, and you would have the effrontery to continue your unmeaning speeches in the face of all good men who would sympathize with me and be shocked at the terrible lot which had been seems to turn from the Almighty and from men, and speaks to himself. The verses are a sad, pensive monologue. He virtually says, I am dying, all is over. My days are run out, my purposes are frustrated, and even the thoughts of my heart, -as some render it, the possessions of my heart, are gone. Ver. 12. "They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness." "Ye explain night as daylight is near, when darkness sets in." Delitzsch. "They change." Whom does he mean? Some suppose the reference is to his friends, and that he means to say that they wished to make out that light for him was near at hand, when darkness was coming; and that darkness was near at hand when light was about breaking upon his path. Others suppose that the reference is to the thoughts of his heart mentioned in the preceding verse; and that he means to say that those thoughts changed the outward world to him, made light darkness, and darkness light. Vers. 13-16.-"If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope as for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust." These verses have been thus paraphrased: "Truly I hope for the grave to be mine house. I hope for the time when I shall have spread out my couch in the darkness. Dreadful as is the idea of rotting and mouldering in the grave, yet so great are my sufferings now, that I am become quite reconciled to it. Nay, death were for me a most happy and welcome change, so happy and welcome indeed, that with joy I would call out to corruption, Thou art my father! to the Worm I would call out, O my mother, and, O my sister! For where is now my hope? What can I yet hope for? What use to prolong a life so utterly miserable and bereft of hope? Yea, as to my hope, who will ever see it realized? As to these limbs, destined to the grave, let them go down. Verily, quiet is altogether in the dust. There is neither quiet nor peace in this life for man, and it is only in the dust that he can look for them!" HOMILETICS. This chapter concludes Job's second reply to Eliphaz. His reply, we have seen, is characterized by censure and complaint. In the preceding chapter he complains, in language strong and vehement, both of the severity and undeservedness of his sufferings. He continues his complaint in this chapter; and it comes out in a threefold address. I. His address to THE ALMIGHTY. find three things: In this address we First: The piteous. There are three things which he bewails in touching tones of sadness. (1) The near approach of his death. My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, 66 |