Job 40

40 : 1 MOREOVER the LORD answered Job, and said,

2. Shall he that cavilleth contend with the Almighty ?

He that argueth with God, let him answer it.

3. Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

4. Behold, I am of small account ; what shall I answer thee ?

I lay mine hand upon my mouth.

5. Once have I spoken, and I will not answer ; Yea twice, but I will proceed no further.

6. Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

7. Gird up thy loins now like a man : I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

8. Wilt thou even disannul my judgment ? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be justified ?

9. Or hast thou an arm like God ? And canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

10. Deck thyself now with excellency and dignity ; And array thyself with honour and majesty.

11. Pour forth the overflowings of thine anger : And look upon every one that is proud, and abase him.

12. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low ; And tread down the wicked where they stand.

13. Hide them in the dust together ; Bind their faces in the hidden place.

14. Then will I also confess of thee That thine own right hand can save thee.

15. Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee ; He eateth grass as an ox.

16. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, And his force is in the muscles of his belly.

17. He moveth his tail like a cedar : The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

18. His bones are as tubes of brass ; His limbs are like bars of iron.

19. He is the chief of the ways of God : He only that made him giveth him his sword.

20. Surely the mountains bring him forth food ; Where all the beasts of the field do play.

21. He lieth under the lotus trees, In the covert of the reed, and the fen.

22. The lotus trees cover him with their shadow ; The willows of the brook compass him about.

23. Behold, if a river overflow, he trembleth not :

He is confident, though Jordan swell even to his mouth.

24. Shall any take him when he is on the watch, Or pierce through his nose with a snare ?

41 : 1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with a fish hook ?

Or press down his tongue with a cord ?

2. Canst thou put a rope into his nose ? Or pierce his jaw through with a hook ?

3. Will he make many supplications unto thee ? Or will he speak soft words unto thee ?

4. Will he make a covenant with thee, That thou shouldest take him for a servant for ever ?

5. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird ? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens ?

6. Shall the bands of fishermen make traffic of him ? Shall they part him among the merchants ?

7. Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish spears ?

8. Lay thine hand upon him ; Remember the battle, and do so no more.

9. Behold, the hope of him is in vain : Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him ?

10. None is so fierce that he dare stir him up : Who then is he that can stand before me ?

11. Who hath first given unto me, that I should repay him ? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12. I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, Nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.

13. Who can strip off his outer garment ? Who shall come within his double bridle ?

14. Who can open the doors of his face ? Round about his teeth is terror.

15. His strong scales are his pride, Shut up together as with a close seal.

16. One is so near to another, That no air can come between them.

17. They are joined one to another ; They stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

18. His neesings flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19. Out of his mouth go burning torches, And sparks of fire leap forth.

20. Out of his nostrils a smoke goeth, As of a seething pot and burning rushes. 21 His breath kindleth coals, And a flame goeth forth from his mouth. 22 In his neck abideth strength, And terror danceth before him. 23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together: They are firm upon him; they cannot be moved. 24 His heart is as firm as a stone; Yea, firm as the nether millstone. 25 When he raiseth himself up, the mighty are afraid: By reason of consternation they are beside themselves. 26 If one lay at him with the sword, it cannot avail; Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. 27 He counteth iron as straw, And brass as rotten wood. 28 The arrow cannot make him flee: Slingstones are turned with him into stubble. 29 Clubs are counted as stubble: He laugheth at the rushing of the javelin. 30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds: He spreadeth as it were a threshing wain upon the mire.

31. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: He maketh the sea like ointment. 32 He maketh a path to shine after him; One would think the deep to be hoary. 33 Upon earth there is not his like, That is made without fear. 34 He beholdeth every thing that is high: He is king over all the sons of pride.

42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

2. I know that thou canst do all things, And that no purpose of thine can be restrained. 3 Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not, Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. 4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. 5 I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; But now mine eye seeth thee, 6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent In dust and ashes.

As if the purpose of the preceding survey of creation might be lost in the brilliancy of the individual parts of it, the Divine Speaker gathers up its general effect and brings it to bear on Job directly, demanding whether he will persevere in his contention with Jehovah—will the reprover contend with the Almighty? (vs. 1, 2). Job is abased by the glory of God which He has made to pass before him, and brought to silence—I am too mean, what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth (vs. 3-5). A. B. D.

2. Contend with the Almighty. The great point is thus determined; any reasoning which implies a right to remonstrate with the Almighty, or to dictate the course which He ought to adopt, is presumption. Job had fully recognized the wisdom and omnipotence of God, but had questioned His righteousness; he had to learn that God’s ways are not man’s ways, nor within his competence to judge. Cook.

Job has desired to “bring his cause” before God; this indeed has been his most constant longing, and for this we left him all ready when he ceased speaking. Has he still the same desire, after all this view of the various wisdom mlaid in nature? Will he still “contend” (the legal term) as a reprover and critic, after he has seen so much that is beyond and above him? The following words of Robert Buchanan interpret well the significance of the Lord’s question here, as related to the review of creation that has just been given: “Because there is sin and misery in the world, because hearts ache and bodies die, shall we turn upon this sublimely exhaustless Being, and demand explanation? Is it not something to know how He delights in making, in endless creating, and that One who thus delights cannot be cruel? The explanation will come."—Let him answer. He that is great enough to “censure,” to pass judgment on God, is great enough to answer his own questions; if to him God’s way is not self-justifying, no answer from outside himself would justify it. J. F. G.

3-5. The nature of the preceding interrogations, the pungency of their rapid succession, the majesty of the speaker, and the circumstances of terror that accompanied his speaking could not fail of having a powerful effect. Job is now sensible of his own blindness, weakness, and littleness; of the rashness of his complaints, and the excess of his self-justification. These convictions produced the confession here related.

4. He retracts by this expression the too high value he had set on his own rectitude. “I am of small account” in the immensity of Thy works, and am so now in my own eyes. Scott.

5. I have spoken once and again foolishly, but I will not defend what I have unadvisedly said, nor proceed further in such presumptuous expressions and accusations of Thy providence. Clark.—Job has come to feel his utter and incomparable inferiority before God, and to realize the highly reprehensible character of the words that he has spoken. He finds that he has nothing to answer. He has spoken at large once, twice, but he now sees the impropriety of all that he had said, and wisely resolves to proceed no further. His changed tone is commendable, but as yet no expression of penitence is heard. Curry.

The first effects are humiliation and submission; but silence and submission are not enough. What is wanted is teachableness and perfect trust, of which this first confession of Job does not give any clear indication; hence the occasion for a second address. Cook.

CHAPS. 40 : 6 ; 42 : 6. THE LORD’S SECOND ANSWER TO JOB OUT OF THE STORM. Shall Man Charge God with unrighteousness in His Rule of the World?

All that the first speech of the Lord touched upon was the presumption of a mortal man desiring to contend with the Almighty. The display from creation of that which God is had the desired effect on Job’s mind; he is abased and will no more contend with the Almighty. But Job had not only presumed to contend with God, he had charged Him with unrighteousness in His rule of the world and in His treatment of himself. This is the point to which the second speech from the storm is directed.

The passage has two parts: First (vs. 6-14), as Job had challenged the rectitude of God’s rule of the world, he is ironically invited to clothe himself with the Divine attributes and assume the rule of the world himself. Then follows (40 : 15 ; 41 : 34) a lengthy description of two monsters, behemoth and leviathan. Second (42 : 1-6), Job’s reply to the Divine challenge. He confesses that he spoke things which he understood not. He had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but now his eye saw Him, and he abhorred his former words and demeanor and repented in dust and ashes. A. B. D.

6-8. Job has come to see that he has no wisdom wherewith to enter the lists against the infinite Wisdom of the world and pass judgment on what is so complex. The Lord now takes him one step farther back and asks him why he should separate God’s cause from his own, as if they must be antagonists. Is there not room, in such a universe, for both God’s right and Job’s? Nay, and such belligerent assertion of a mortal’s “rights”—which assertion we will remember Job has not yet withdrawn—is that the attitude for utter weakness to assume before infinite Power? Questioning like this, and from such a source, fulfils Elihu’s wish as no words of the friends could do; it “tries Job to the utmost,” revealing and refining the real gold of his character. J. F. G.

7. Gird up thy loins now like a man. The same challenge as before (38 : 2). It answers Job according to his own folly expressed in his desiring to meet God in order to justify himself against the implication of guiltiness in God’s treatment of him. Curry.

8. By “disannulling God’s judgment” is meant “condemning God,” as the latter sentence explains it. Job’s complaints and manner of justifying himself amounted to charging God with injustice. Scott.—This is precisely the issue that Job had made, and continued to reiterate, as was also charged against him by Elihu. To convict the ruler of injustice is to “disannul” his “judgment,” since all judgment must abide in righteousness. Job had transgressed in other and less serious matters, but this (so the word “even” plainly implies) is the most presumptuous of all his offences. In justifying himself Job had condemned God. Curry.

9-14. He who presumes to argue with God must, like Him, be arrayed with majesty, able, like Him, to reduce all creatures to subjection. The moral law of the Divine government is briefly intimated in vs. 11-13. Cook.

10. Deek thyself now with majesty. The magnificent scenery in this and the four following verses presents to us the Almighty arrayed in the splendors of Divine majesty, exerting His supreme dominion, and manifesting His righteous vengeance by thundering and lightning on the heads of haughty tyrants and hurling them down to the bottom of Hades. (See Isa. 30 : 30.) Job is ironically required to invest himself with the attributes of Deity, and to assume the glorious ensigns of Divine majesty; that he may execute judgment on proud oppressors and other profligate men, of whose impunity and prosperity he had so loudly complained. Scott.—Array thyself with glory and beauty. To understand those expressions in Scripture which speak of Jehovah being arrayed or clothed with majesty, strength, honor, or the like, we must recollect the glorious manner in which He vouchsafed to appear to His people in fire, light, and clouds. Parkhurst.

10-14. As Job questions the manner of the Almighty’s rule of the world, God invites him to deck himself with the thunder and majesty of the Supreme Ruler, and himself undertake the government of the world; and in the execution of this government to bring low all that is proud (comp. Isa. 2:12, seq.), to subdue and keep down the forces of evil, and hide the faces of the wicked in darkness. Under this ironical invitation to Job there lie two general thoughts: First, that omnipotence is necessary in the Ruler of all; and, second, that the rule of the world consists in keeping in check the forces of evil. This is the idea under which the rule of the world is conceived; in other words, it is regarded as necessarily moral; and it is assumed that God’s rule is, in fact, a rule of this kind. In his present frame of mind Job probably would not now contest this. But if God’s rule be moral, on the whole, it must be so in every particular; real exceptions are inconceivable, however like exceptions many things may appear. A. B. D.

14. Then will I also confess of thee. Job’s right to sit in judgment on God’s administration of affairs must be sustained by the display of the requisite power to govern. This God challenges Job to display, with the promise that, having done so, his claim shall be recognized. Curry.—He is for once to put on the robes of the King of kings, and send forth his wrath over pride and evil-doing for their complete removal. Try it only for once—this is the collective thought—to act like Me in the execution of penal justice, I would praise thee. D.—That thine own right hand can save thee. That thou art self-sufficient, the author and preserver of thy own happiness; therefore a god and a match for Me. This humiliating sarcasm makes way for another mortification; for the Almighty next sends him to two of His creatures, behemoth and leviathan, and bids him prove his high courage in an open encounter with either of them. Scott.

In vs. 6-14 Jehovah invited Job to assume the rule of the world, and to bring low all opposing forces of evil. He is able to do this, seeing he challenges the rule of the Almighty. And to bring to his consciousness whether he is able or not, two creatures, the work of God’s hand like himself, are brought before him and the question put, Is he able to enter into conflict with them and subdue them? Is he, therefore, able to assume the rule of the world or to enter into conflict with the Creator of these formidable monsters? “Who then will stand before Me?” (41:10). A. B. D.

15-24. Description of Behemoth.

15. “Behold now behemoth, and consider whether thou art able to contend with Him who made that beast and gave him all the power he has, and whether it is not thy wisdom rather to submit to Him and make thy peace with Him.” H.—In the Book of Job God has thrown open to us the heart of a man apparently perfect in all things possible to human nature except humility We are here shown that no suffering, no self-examination, however honest and stern, no searching out of the heart by its own bitterness is enough to convince man of his nothingness before God; but that the sight of God’s creation will do it. For, when the Deity Himself has willed to end the temptation and to accomplish in Job that for which it was sent, He does not vouchsafe to reason with him, still less does He overwhelm him with terror, or confound him by laying open before his eyes the book of his iniquities. He opens before him only the arch of the dayspring and the fountains of the deep; and amidst the covert of the reeds and on the heaving waves He bids him watch the kings of the children of pride. “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee!” And the work is done. Ruskin.

Behemoth. Bochart first identified this animal with the hippopotamus, and showed the accuracy of the description. At present the point is universally admitted by scholars. Dr. Tristram says: “It is clear that the description suits the hippopotamus exactly, and it alone.” The word in Hebrew probably means the great beast, or the beast of beasts, that which combines in the highest degree the marvellous powers and instincts of the graminivorous animals.

19. Chief of the ways. The masterpiece, so to speak, of creation; an expression which refers either to its bulk (it reaches seven feet in height and thirteen in length, which exceeds that of the elephant, Hirz.), or, more probably, to its unequalled strength, a point directly bearing upon the argument touching the feebleness of man.

23. Behold, if a river ravageth, he trembleth not; he is steadfast, if the Jordan burst upon his mouth! The word “ravageth” means literally “does injury”—i.e., by overflowing its banks. The ravages of the Nile when the inundation is unusually high are terrible. In 1864 the whole country was submerged, the cattle destroyed, and the villagers all but ruined. The quiet confidence with which the heavy brute bears the rush of the formidable inundation may be contrasted with the terror and flight of beasts of prey. Cook.—The swollen, rushing stream has no terrors for him. The Jordan was a familiar name and an object of interest to all the descendants of Abraham; and among them would most naturally be named as the representative of any large and powerful stream. It is not implied, therefore, that the river-ox was an inhabitant of the Jordan. Conant.

41:1-34. Description of Leviathan.

1. Leviathan. The word, which properly means a large creature, lithe or folded, may apply either—as in 3:8—to a dragon (see note); or—as in Psalms 104:26—to a whale; or—as in this chapter—to the crocodile; a point upon which all commentators are now agreed. This interpretation rests upon the accuracy of the description, which, though highly poetical, is neither legendary nor hyperbolical.

1,2. These two verses evidently imply that the huge crocodile was not, and could not be taken. There were, however, many species—five are now counted by naturalists, and the hieroglyphics indicate a still greater number. The leviathan of this chapter describes the largest and most formidable of all, probably one which no one, in Job’s time, dreamed of attacking.

10,11. These verses point the application of this second discourse. If God’s creatures are so great, what must be the terrors of His majesty? Cook.—The lesson of these portrayals drawn. Both beasts are vastly more powerful than man—the one mild, the other fierce, yet both owing all they are to God. Shall man alone, who belongs to God in the same sum of things, bring to his Maker an unpaid demand? In all these things has God left man’s life unprovided for? We are reminded of the lesson drawn in Isaiah 40:26-28. J. F. G.

13. “His outer garment” seems to mean the upper side or surface of his coat of scales—his armor; and the question is, Who has turned back or removed this scaly covering? The question seems a general, preliminary one, as the scales are more particularly described in v. 15. A. B. D.

Come within his double bridle. The double row of teeth. The two most prominent characteristics are the scales and the jaws, which are dwelt upon in the eight verses following.

14. Round about his teeth is terror. The neck of the war horse is clothed with terror, so terror has its permanent abode in the jaw of the crocodile. Cook.—The jaws of the crocodile are very extended; the two rows of long, pointed teeth, thirty-six, it is said, above, and thirty beneath, being bare, as the mouth has no lips, present a formidable appearance.

15-17. His armor of scales. His scales are his pride. Rather, the rows of his shields are a pride. Each of his scales is a shield, and they are disposed in rows, or courses—literally, pipes, so called from their being curved or bossed. Of these rows there are said to be seventeen. The second clause describes the firmness and closeness with which each scale adheres to the body. The sixteenth and seventeenth verses refer to the close coherence of the scales to one another.

18. The eyelids of the morning. The reference may be to the shining of the reddish eyes of the animal, which are seen even under the water before its head comes to the surface. In the Egyptian hieroglyphs the eyes of the crocodile are a symbol of the dawn. A. B. D.

19-21. Bartram has observed on the American alligator that as it comes on the land a thick smoke issues from its distended nostrils with a thundering sound. The thick, hot steam produces the impression of a fire existing beneath and bursting forth. The subjective truth of this impression is faithfully but poetically reproduced. D.—He is here described as emerging from the water, and violently forcing out the heated breath and steam, which glisten in the sunlight (vs. 20, 21) like smoke and flame from burning coals. These strong expressions are not mere poetic exaggeration. They are such as an eye-witness might use in communicating to others the actual impressions made upon himself, and are therefore the most suitable for conveying the same impressions to us. Conant.

22. This translation but imperfectly expresses the magnificent personification of the original, “On his neck dwelleth strength; before him leapeth horror.” Horror or despair is described with a terrible irony as exulting in the presence of its lord. Cook.—Terror personified as the avant courrier of the mighty beast, running joyfully and dancing before him. T. Lewis.—A bold and striking personification of the two closely related qualities, strength and the dread it inspires. His neck is the abode of strength, for there resides the force which wields his powers of destruction. Dances before him, aptly describes the imbecility of terror. Conant.

24. Its heart is firm and obdurate, as though it were of cast brass, hard as stone, and in fact as the nether millstone, which, because it has to bear the weight and friction of the upper, must be particularly hard. It is not intended of actual stone-like hardness, but only of its indomitable spirit and great tenacity of life; the activity of its heart is not so easily disturbed, and even fatal wounds do not so quickly bring it to a stand. D.

31. Lastly comes the movement through the water; the images are exact, the chief object of Oriental descriptive poetry, which aims at definiteness and life, regardless of conventional notions of dignity; the immense size of the beast and the impetuosity of his movement throws the whole stream into violent commotion; it seethes and heaves like a caldron of boiling oil. Cook.

33. The armor with which the upper part of the body is covered may be numbered among the most elaborate pieces of nature’s mechanism. In the full-grown animal it is so strong and thick as easily to repel a musket-ball. The whole animal appears as if covered with the most regular and curious carved work. The mouth is of vast width, the gape having a somewhat flexuous outline, and both jaws being furnished with very numerous, sharp-pointed teeth. The number of teeth in each jaw is thirty or more, and they are so disposed as to alternate with each other when the mouth is closed. The legs are short, but strong and muscular. In the glowing regions of Africa, where it arrives at its full strength and power, it is justly regarded as the most formidable inhabitant of the rivers. Shaw.

What impression was such a description calculated to produce? We must remember the profoundly religious and serious character of the Eastern patriarch. When images were presented to his mind which spoke of tremendous power and purposes utterly beyond his conception, he could have no thought but of his own nothingness. It never entered into his spirit to doubt of God’s wisdom; but when he reflected upon the marvellous care which God bestowed upon every part of an animal so utterly useless to man, he must have felt that the goodness which was to him but another word for perfect wisdom, must be something far different from that which in his narrowness and presumption man is wont to assume. Cook. —That the Lord has a right to reign over us; and that we are bound to a cheerful submission to His dispensations toward us, not because we see the reasons of them, but because it is His will concerning us, and we know that He cannot but will our essential good—still form proper grounds of argument with the afflicted, and sometimes indeed amount to nearly all that can be urged. Kitto.

The argument of omnipotence insisted on in these four chapters, when duly considered, includes in it a full, perfect, and sufficient vindication of the ways of God with man. For if “He can do all things,” and “nothing is impossible with God,” He can have no temptation to do wrong; for “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man,” though for wise and salutary purposes, for correction, for discipline, for purification of heart and life, and preparation for a better world, He tries the best men, like Job, and proves them in the furnace of affliction, that “they may come forth like gold;” while by His all-governing and all-controlling providence He restrains the craft and subtilty of the devil or man working against them, to shake their faith and “sift them as wheat;” saying to the former, as to the ocean originally, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” At the same time, of His infinite mercy and goodness He is not severe to mark what they have done amiss upon their hearty repentance and true faith; for “He knoweth whereof they are made, He remembereth that they are but dust.” Dr. Hales.

This complete submission contains, 1. A full acknowledgment of God’s almighty power and supreme dominion (v. 2). By thus glorifying the sovereign authority of God, Job tacitly condemns himself for not having meekly submitted to it. 2. A like acknowledgment of the unsearchable wisdom of Divine providence, with an explicit condemnation of himself for his objections and murmurings against it (v. 3). 3. He humbly begs of God to vouchsafe a gracious audience to his petition, and to instruct him further in his duty (v. 4). 4. He declares that this visible manifestation of the Almighty to him had impressed him with a deeper and more reverent sense of the Divine perfection and majesty than he had before conceived by means of instruction only (v. 5). Lastly he expresses his repentance in the strongest terms of self-condemnation and humble sorrow (v. 6). This complete submission discloses an alteration infinitely more important and beneficial than any change of Job’s outward condition; it shows an alteration in the temper and state of his mind. He is brought back to his duty, and his soul returns to its rest in God. Scott.

The Lord has said nothing to crush and exasperate His servant, as the three friends had done. It is better to fall into the hand of God than into the hands of men. In His Word He is patient and kind, and diverts the thought of the sufferer from his own sad case to the contemplation of other objects of Divine care and proofs of Divine wisdom and might. The result is Job’s lowly and contrite confession before God. D. F.

In Job’s repentance all the marks of evangelical repentance are found—submission and abasement (v. 2); confession of sin (v. 3); humble and believing prayer (v. 4); the revelation of God to the soul (v. 5); and then the blessed result—self-knowledge, self abhorrence, true, deep, lasting repentance: “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (v. 6). E. Bayley.—The only skill of this excellent wrestler (as one calls him) was to cast himself down at God’s foot. There is no way of getting in to God or prevailing with Him but by submitting to Him. The Lord layeth down His rod when we lay down our pride, and casts His sword out of His hand when we cast ourselves at His feet. Caryl.

2. The meaning is that there is no purpose which the Almighty cannot carry out. Though literally the words seem merely an acknowledgment of power, they are also an admission of wisdom, the plans or purposes of which may be beyond the understanding of man (v. 3). Job’s confession corresponds to the Almighty’s address to him. That address did not insist on any one Divine attribute, but rather presented God in the whole circle of His attributes—power and wisdom, but also goodness—for He refreshes the thirsty ground where no man is, He feeds the ravens, and presides over the birth-pangs of the goats of the rock, and His omnipotence goes hand in hand with His moral rule (40:9, seq.). The Divine nature is not a segment but a circle. Any one Divine attribute implies all others. Omnipotence cannot exist apart from righteousness. Similarly, Job’s reply reflects the great general impression of God now made on him. The exercise of the Divine wisdom as it operates in nature has led him to feel that within his own history also there is a Divine “thought” or “counsel,” though he is unable to understand it. It can hardly, however, be the author’s purpose to teach the general principle that the “counsel” of God is incomprehensible, because he gives an explanation of it in the prologue. He is not teaching general principles here, but showing the position which just thoughts of God will induce a man to take even when God’s dealings may be beyond his understanding. A. B. D.

3. Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? The opening of the Lord’s address. Job brings it distinctly before his mind and recognizes its justice; clear and bright as his own reasoning had seemed to be, it was but a darkening of counsel. Cook.—The very words that had been spoken to Job in reproof he now repeats in the spirit of humiliation and confession. He had spoken unwisely, irreverently, because of his want of spiritual understanding, and had assumed to sit in judgment on the Divine administration in human affairs. This he now sees, and humbles himself with contrition and confession. Curry.—He indeed knew previously what he acknowledges (v. 2), but now this knowledge has risen upon him in a new divinely-worked clearness, such as he had not hitherto experienced. Those strange but wondrous works of God are proof to him that God is able to put everything into operation, and that the plans according to which He acts are beyond the reach of human comprehension. He repeats to himself the chastening Word of Jehovah (38:2), while he chastises himself with it; for he now perceives that his judgment was wrong, and that he consequently merited the reproof. D.

Which way soever we turn in our search after knowledge, we run against mystery at the second or third step. And a great part of our misery, a still greater of our unbelief, and all the lunatic rage of our scepticism arises in the fact that we either do not, or will not see it to be so. Ignorance trying to comprehend what is inscrutable, and out of patience that it cannot make the high things of God come down to its own petty measures, is the definition of all atheism. There is no true comfort in life, no dignity in reason, apart from modesty. We wrangle with Providence and call it reason, we rush upon God’s mysteries, and tear ourselves against the appointments of His throne, and then, because we bleed, complain that He cruelly mocks our understanding. All our disputings and hard speeches are the frothing of our ignorance maddened by our pride. Oh, if we could see our own limitations, and how little it is possible for us to know of matters infinite, how much less, clouded by the necessary blindness of a mind disordered by evil, we should then be in a way to learn, and the lessons God will teach would put us in a way to know what now is hidden from us. After all his labored disputings and lofty reasons with his friends, Job turns himself to God and says, “I have uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” Bushnell.

4. Job now wished to be heard as an earnest inquirer seeking for instruction. The conviction of his own ignorance caused a desire to be instructed by God Himself. The spirit of the confession in the next verse also dominates this; he sees the folly of his own self-assurances and turns to God, who only can teach man true wisdom. Curry.

5. Job’s eyes are open at last to perceive the universality both of God’s power and wisdom; an all-pervading care in which he is content to take his place, hushing all complaints and trusting where he cannot see. This is the grand outcome of Job’s experience; an outcome not merely in a completed argument, but in a chastened, obedient, enlightened character. J. F. G. —Humility and repentance are the result of large acquaintance with God. Job said, I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee. It expresses two kinds of knowledge—the one speculative, the other practical. He had formerly a distant and vague acquaintance of God, without contemplating Him by that faith which seeth Him who is invisible. He now had an intimate, a deep and practical sense of God, very different from the mere vague conceptions he had when he only heard of Him; that knowledge which is practical, deep, intimate, and profound. The two effects were humility and repentance. Humility is produced by the sight of His greatness, repentance by a knowledge of His purity. It is the union of these that form the idea of God. R. Hall.

Mine eye seeth Thee. Man instinctively closes his eyes to see God when he worships or prays, naturally feeling that it is by making himself spiritually conscious of God that he is to meet Him. Yet this is the true meeting, the real encounter. For me to know that I am in the presence of God, and know that He is conscious of me, and know that He knows I am conscious of Him—this is for me to see God—nay, it is far more, it is to meet Him in the most perfect sense. W. R. Brooks.

6. I abhor. Not myself (though that may be a secondary thought), but it—that is, my former misconceptions and rebellion. I retract my proud utterances with deepest abhorrence—I repudiate them. Curry.—Job confesses now that he had not really heard God’s word before—that is, received it in its full meaning; it was, so far as regarded the special cause of his spiritual trial, as though he knew it not. It was a mere hearing with the ear of sense, but now he sees God with the eye of the spirit; now he can see himself in his true proportions, and he submits with utter humiliation of heart. Does this imply that he now surrenders his righteousness, thus doing just that which was the object of all the temptations of Satan and of his misjudging friends to induce him to do? Yes, in one sense, inasmuch as he no longer holds to it as a principle on which he may trust in a controversy with his Maker; but not in a sense which was contemplated by the author of those temptations, for Job knows that his relative righteousness—sincerity of intention and singleness of heart—is recognized by God, and proved by His condescension in answering and satisfying his inward craving. Cook.

This humble confession and self-abasement of Job was graciously accepted; it covered all his imperfections; his passionate complaints wrung from him by the extremity of sufferings, corporeal and mental; his despair and weariness of life; his frequent wishes for death; his eagerness to enter upon his trial; his earnest request, and even expostulations with his Judge, to bring him to it, or, at least, to acquaint him with the reasons of such severe afflictions. Such shades and blemishes in the character of this illustrious Patriarch argue somewhat of impatience in this heroic pattern of patience. But God is ever ready to pass over the frailties and infirmities of human nature, where there is a tried and resolute integrity, determined to adhere to God in all trials and temptations, whatever may be the result. Dr. Hales.

The past hard experience has brought Job immeasurably nearer to God. The grand conclusion, the sum total is expressed not in words, but in life: “Now mine eye seeth Thee.” Need one whose eyes are opened by such a hard schooling ask why it was given? The answer is self-evident. Less than such stern discipline would not have produced such beauty and strength of human character. Less than such severe chastening would not have quickened Job’s vision to see how subtly selfish motives may work to impair the friendships and the wisdom of earth, and how sufficing is the refuge provided in the eternal Love beyond this life.

And the answer thus embodied in the Patriarch’s experience is a world-answer, pointing to that mystery of travail and suffering which everywhere underlies the deepest insight, the highest achievements. Shall we ask why God invades our ease and scourges us onward and upward to the table-lands of vision? The new horizon and the purer air and the stronger muscles are the sufficient reason. J. F. G.

Job’s afflictions have not abated yet. His terrible losses are still as great as they were, and his bodily sufferings are as grievous. But the cloud is gone. He has lost all disposition to murmur or repine. He can trust the infinitely holy and mighty and wise and gracious One to do whatsoever seemeth Him good. It is good if God does it; it is the best thing possible; no man at least, nor any finite being, could alter it for the better; and Job would not have it otherwise. The temptation is not vanquished now; it has disappeared. Job has now come to the end of the third, which is the last and most fearful stage of the temptation. The struggle has been tremendous. It has been a long and a wearisome and a desperately contested conflict. But the issue is glorious. The forces of the enemy are not merely driven back, and left to rally and return again to the charge. They are positively annihilated, and the victory is complete and final. Sublime as was Job’s resignation in the first and second stages of his afflictions, it is sublimer now. W. H. G.

Strange to tell, the closing picture of Job is not that of a conqueror, but a confessor, not of an enthroned prince, but of a kneeling penitent. The unexpected revolution is effected by the revelation of God to the eye of the soul. Job knows God as he did not know Him before. The character of his knowledge is changed, heightened, vitalized, intensified, personalized. God is no longer a voice crying in the wilderness, but a Presence in his heart and before his spiritual eye. Here then is one signal value of the knowledge of God, even of His immense power and greatness. By the knowledge of God is the knowledge of self, in the knowledge of self is the knowledge of sin, through the knowledge of personal sin we come to repentance, and by a baptism in the fiery waters of repentance we pass to the reality and strength of life. Such God-inspired penitence swiftly vindicates itself in the pure sincerity and holy brotherhood it creates and the reconciliation it effects between man and men and man and his lot. The voice of prayer is exchanged for the clash of debate; the incense of reconciling sacrifice ascends in place of the smoke of anger and scorn. J. Clifford.

Surely when men indulge the fancy that they may stand before God on the meritorious ground of their own virtues they forget what God is, with whom they have to do. They forget both His perfect holiness and His omniscience. Would the best of us be willing that even an earthly friend should be privy to all his words, all his actions, all his thoughts, all his desires, all his purposes, all his emotions? Think, then, of Him who “searcheth the heart and the reins.” He is “greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things.” He knows whether we think about Him, often or seldom; and when we do think of Him, what our thoughts of Him are, worthy or unworthy. He knows whether we bow the knee to Him in secret, whether frequently or rarely; and whether the heart is bowed with the knee. He follows us from the closet to the family, and from the family to the intercourse of public life. He searches our hearts all the while. He knows how much greater influence, in restraining us from what is evil, the thought of some fellow-creature’s presence has than the assurance of His. He knows all our sins of omission as well as commission; how often we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and have left undone those things which we ought to have done. He has known all from the beginning, every moment; and the entire catalogue of our demerits is, at the same instant, present to His mind, who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon sin.” Such considerations may well draw from every heart the exclamation of Job: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” And whither, with this overwhelming conviction on his conscience and heart, can the sinner betake himself but to the cross? There alone are forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace and hope to be found. There the omniscient God, with the full knowledge of all the sinner’s guilt, cancels it forever when that sinner makes the cross and the blood shed on it his plea for mercy. R. Wardlaw.