It is in the analysis and study of the soul that the greatness of human life is best realized, and our indebtedness toward its Giver most deeply felt. This reflective reason; this heart, capable of a boundless expansion; this will, which may be trained to a freedom and an intensity of power—of what are these faculties so suggestive as of the knowledge, love, and service due to that Being of beings who is the End as He is the Author of this centre of complex and self-controlling life? H. P. L.

What takes place in the government of the human family when ruled according to the dictates of nature and right, affords an image, imperfect but still true—a shadowing forth, faint yet faithful—of Divine Providence. Thus it is that the Christian religion qualifies and describes the action of God in the life of man. It exhibits God as ever present and accessible to man, as a father to his child; it exhorts, encourages, invites man to implore, to confide in, to pray to God. It reserves absolutely the answer of God to that prayer; He will grant, or He will refuse; we cannot penetrate His motives—“The ways of God are not our ways.” Nevertheless, to prayer, ceaseless and ever renewed, the Christian dogma associates the firm hope that “nothing is impossible with God.” This dogma is thus in full and intimate harmony with the nature of man; while recognizing his liberty, it does homage to his dignity; in tendering to him the resource of an appeal to God it provides for his weakness. In science, it suppresses not the mystery which cannot be suppressed; but in man’s life, it solves the natural problem which weighs upon the soul. Guizot.

The idea of religion which appears on the face of every Psalm is the idea of the unfailing tenderness of God, His understanding of every honest prayer, the certainty that in the vastness and the catastrophes of the world the soul in its own singleness has a refuge, is linked at the throne of the world to its own reward and strength, is held by the hand, is guided by the eye of One who cares for the weakest as much as He is greater than the greatest of His creatures. And there is no mood of mixed and varied feeling, no form of deep and yearning affection, no tone of absorbing emotion, in which this sense of what God is to the soul does not express itself in the Psalms. R. W. Church.

1. PRAISE YE THE LORD. PRAISE GOD IN HIS SANCTUARY: PRAISE HIM IN THE FIRMAMENT OF HIS POWER. 2 PRAISE HIM FOR HIS MIGHTY ACTS: PRAISE HIM ACCORDING TO HIS EXCELLENT GREATNESS. 3 PRAISE HIM WITH THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET: PRAISE HIM WITH THE PSALTERY AND HARP. 4 PRAISE HIM WITH THE TIMBREL AND DANCE: PRAISE HIM WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS AND THE PIPE. 5 PRAISE HIM UPON THE LOUD CYMBALS: PRAISE HIM UPON THE HIGH SOUNDING CYMBALS.

1. HALLELUJAH, PRAISE GOD IN HIS SANCTUARY, PRAISE HIM IN HIS STRONG FIRMAMENT! 2 PRAISE HIM FOR HIS MIGHTY ACTS, PRAISE HIM ACCORDING TO THE ABUNDANCE OF HIS GREATNESS! 3 PRAISE HIM WITH THE SOUND OF HORNS, PRAISE HIM WITH HARP AND CITHERN! 4 PRAISE HIM WITH TIMBREL AND DANCE, PRAISE HIM WITH STRINGS AND PIPE! 5 PRAISE HIM WITH CLEAR CYMBALS, PRAISE HIM WITH CLANGING CYMBALS! 6 LET EVERYTHING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE JEHOVAH, HALLELUJAH! D.

THIS is the great closing hallelujah, or doxology, of the Psalter, in which every kind of musical instrument is to bear its part as well as the voice of man, in which not one nation only, but “everything that hath breath,” is invited to join. P.—This is the last of a score of Psalms which declare their own intention as anthems, adapted for that public worship which was the glory and delight of the Hebrew people; a worship carrying with it the soul of the multitude by its simple majesty and by the powers of music, brought in their utmost force to recommend the devotions of earth in the hearing of heaven. Take it as a sample of this class, and bring the spectacle and the sounds into one, for the imagination to rest in. It was evidently to subserve the purposes of music that these thirteen verses are put together; it was no doubt to give effect first to the human voice, and then to the alternations of instruments—loud and tender and gay—with the graceful movements of the dance, that the anthem was composed and its chorus brought out,

“Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!

Praise ye the Lord!”

And so did the congregated thousands take up their part with a shout, “even as the voice of many waters.” I. T.

The last three Psalms are a triad of wondrous praise, ascending from praise to higher praise, until it becomes exultation which knows no bounds. The joy overflows the soul, and spreads throughout the universe; every creature is drawn into the chorus. Heaven is full of praise, the earth is full of praise, praises rise from under the earth, “everything that hath breath” joins in the rapture. God is encompassed by a loving, praising creation. And each Psalm increases in praise, love, and joy unto this last, which is praise celebrating its ecstasy. The heir of God begins every sentence with Hallelujah; and his sentences are very short. The greatest number of words between any two Hallelujahs is four, and that only once; in every other instance, between one Hallelujah and another there are but two words. It is as though the soul gave utterance to its whole life and feeling in the one word, Hallelujah! The words, “Praise ye the Lord!” or “Praise Him!” “Praise Him!” “Praise Him!” are reiterated no fewer than twelve times in a short Psalm of six short verses. John Pulsford.

1. Praise Him both in earth and heaven. The sanctuary is the earthly one, and stands opposed to the firmament or heaven, called the firmament of His power, as being the most glorious proof and product of its exercise, and still the scene of its most striking exhibitions. The phrase is to be understood as comprehending the hosts of heaven, both inanimate and living, both material and spiritual. A.

The sanctuary is manifestly here looked at as the temple of grace, the firmament as the temple of power. So the verse proclaims both grace and glory. Geier.—Praise God in His sanctuary. Where should He be praised but there where He does, in a special manner, both manifest His glory and communicate His grace? Praise God upon the account of His sanctuary, and the privileges which we enjoy by having that among us (Ez. 37 : 26).

2. Praise Him for His mighty acts;** for His mightinesses, so the word is; for all the instances of His might, the power of His providence, the power of His grace; what He has done in the creation, government, and redemption of the world; for the children of men in general, for His own Church and children in particular. H.

1,2. We are to praise Jehovah “in His sanctuary,” in the place where His glory dwells, where His holiness shines forth with ineffable splendor; we are to praise Him in the wide expanse over which He has spread the tokens of His power, whether in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath; we are to praise Him for those omnipotent acts whereby He hath shown Himself to be above all gods; we are to praise Him in a manner suited to the excellent majesty of a Being whom all the heavens adore, and who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. His holiness, the infinity of His operations, the miraculous power which He has displayed, the unspotted excellence of His administration, call for loudest songs of praise from all whose reason enables them to rise to the contemplation of the great Supreme. J. Morison.

3. Praise Him with blast of trumpet! Praise Him with harp and lyre!** Here begins an enumeration of the instruments employed in public worship, and therefore necessarily associated with the idea of Divine praise. The trumpet was used to assemble the people, and would therefore excite many of the same associations with our church-bells. The other instruments were used as actual accompaniments of the Psalms performed in public worship.

4. Praise Him with timbrel and dance! Praise Him with strings and pipe!** The three great classes of instruments are here distinctly mentioned—namely, wind, stringed, and pulsatile. The last, represented by the drum or timbrel, still called by a kindred name in Arabic, is here accompanied by its inseparable adjunct

dancing, which might seem misplaced in a list of instruments, and those employed in sacred music, but for the peculiar usages and notions of the ancient Hebrews, with respect to this external sign of joy.

5. Praise Him with cymbals of loud sound! Praise Him with cymbals of joyful noise!** The dominant idea, that of audibly expressed joy, is sustained to the last, where the cymbals are mentioned in both clauses, as an instrument peculiarly appropriated to occasions of unusual rejoicing. A.

6. Let everything that hath breath,** and, above all, the voice of man, as opposed to the dead instruments mentioned before. What more fitting close than this of the great “Book of Praises”? P.

Let all breath praise Jehovah! Hallelujah. The very ambiguity of “all breath” gives extraordinary richness of meaning to this closing sentence. From the simple idea of wind instruments, mentioned in the context, it leads us, by a beautiful transition, to that of vocal, articulate, intelligent praise, uttered by the breath of living men, as distinguished from mere lifeless instruments. Then, lastly, by a natural association, we ascend to the idea expressed in the common version, “everything that hath breath,” not merely all that lives, but all that has a voice to praise God. There is nothing in the Psalter more majestic or more beautiful than this brief but most significant finale, in which solemnity of tone predominates, without, however, in the least disturbing the exhilaration which the close of the Psalter seems intended to produce, as if in emblematic allusion to the triumph which awaits the Church and all its members, when through much tribulation they shall enter into rest. A.

As the life of the faithful and the history of the Church, so also the Psalter, with all its cries from the depths, runs out into a Hallelujah. Hengstenberg.—God is the desired end of love, as the running brook is of thirst. Here is the true fountain of praise and worship, love ascending out of self to rejoice in God. This is the meaning of the Psalmist. Let all created life bow itself before the majesty of God, before the beauty of holiness, the glory of uncreated love. “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” Praise is a sacrifice most acceptable in the sight of God. Praise is most blessed for us. To live in a spirit of praise is to live a life as near to heaven as earth can be. H. E. Manning.

Now that the Gospel is ordered to be preached to every human creature, it is required that every human creature praise the Lord. What have we our breath, our spirit for, but to spend it in praising God; and how can we spend it better? Prayers are called our breathings (Lam. 3 : 56). Let every one that breathes toward God in prayer, finding the benefit of that, breathe forth His praises too. Having breath, let the praises of God perfume our breath; let us be in this work as in our element; let it be to us as the air we breathe in, which we could not live without. Praise God with a holy love and delight; praise Him with an entire confidence in Christ; praise Him with a believing triumph over the powers of darkness; praise Him with an earnest desire toward Him and a full satisfaction in Him; praise Him by a universal respect to all His commands; praise Him by a cheerful submission to all His disposals; praise Him by rejoicing in His love and soaking yourselves in His great goodness; praise Him by promoting the interests of the kingdom of His grace; praise Him by a lively hope and expectation of the kingdom of His glory.

The first three of the five books of Psalms (according to the Hebrew division) concluded with Amen and Amen; the fourth with Amen, Hallelujah; but the last, and in it the whole book, concludes only with Hallelujah, because the six last Psalms are wholly taken up in praising God, and there is not a word of complaint or petition in them. The nearer good Christians come to their end, the fuller they should be of the praises of God. Some think that this last Psalm is designed to represent to us the work of glorified saints in heaven, who are there continually praising God. Hallelujah is the word there (Rev. 19 : 1, 3), let us echo to it now as those that hope to join in it shortly. Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord! H.

What a destiny, what a power hath poetry when inspired by God! When my spirit is excited, or devotional, or sad, and seeks for an echo to its enthusiasm, its devotion, or its melancholy, I do not open Pindar or Horace, or Hafiz, those purely academic poets; neither do I find within myself murmurings to express my emotion. I open the Book of Psalms, and there I find words which seem to issue from the soul of the ages, and which penetrate even to the heart of all generations, words which embody the eternal hymn, the personified prayer and complaint of all humanity! If we look back to that remote age when such songs resounded over the world; if we consider that while the lyric poetry of all the most cultivated nations only sang of wine, love, blood, and the victories of coursers at the games of Elidus, we are seized with profound astonishment at the mystic accents of the shepherd prophet Psalmists who speak to God the Creator as one friend to another, who understand and praise His great works, admire His justice, implore His mercy, and become, as it were, an anticipative echo of the evangelic poetry, speaking the soft words of Christ before His coming. Lamartine.

Who is a Christian at all—who has any measure of spiritual discernment and sensibility, and does not love the Psalter? Not only so, but you who value the book as a whole, are almost sure to have your favorite Psalm or Psalms, that seem always to strike an answering chord within your breast. Is it the 8th, that song in the night of the Son of man? or the pastoral which every one knows—the 23d—a song which one has called the nightingale of the Psalms—“small and of a homely feather, but filling the air of the whole world with melodious joy?” Is it a song of Messiah—the 2d, 22d, or 110th? Is it the plaintive trustfulness of the 42d and 43d? Is it the song of the great marriage (45th), or of the kingdom (72d), or of the vineyard (80th)? Is it the sublime hymn of the covenant (89th), the odes of gratitude (103d and 116th), the celebration of God’s works (104th), or of His omnipresence and omniscience (139th)? Or, what think you of the ringing Hallelujah Psalms that conclude the whole Psalter, as some masterpiece of music ends with full clear resounding notes, that fill the ear and swell the soul? Nay, be not too partial; step not from one favorite Psalm to another, but go through the book in detail, and you will find that through field and flood, over the hills of Bashan, and down into shaded valleys, now far off in the desert, now in the deep with rolling billows, and now in the meadows by the margin of still waters, you are led in repentance, faith, self-conquest, patient endurance, and holy aspiration, onward to the joy of the ransomed of the Lord, and the ecstasy of heavenly praise. D. Fraser.

[In addition to the large number of unknown writers, the list for the Psalms comprises nearly 750 names. The appended dates refer either to the year of publication or to that of the writer’s decease. To many readers this will prove of great interest, as well as of value for general reference.]

| J.W. A. A. | Wm. Abbott. Nehemiah Adams, D.D., d. 1878. Thomas Adams, 1614. William Adams, D.D., d. 1880. Joseph Addison, d. 1719. Rev. W. F. Adeney. Rev. R. Adkins. Felix Adler. Rev. A. S. Aglen. Henry Ainsworth, D.D., d. 1622. Rev. W. H. Aitken. James W. Alexander, D.D., d. 1859. J. Addison Alexander, D.D., d. 1860. Com. on the Psalms. Rev. Thomas Alexander. Bp. William Alexander. Witness of Psalms to Christ. Wm. L. Alexander, D.D., d. 1884. Abp. Alfric, d. 1051. Henry Alford, D.D., d. 1871. Henry Allon, D.D., d. 1892. Vincent Alsop, d. 1703. Isaac Ambrose, d. 1674. Bp. Lancelot Andrews, d. 1626. Bp. Edward G. Andrews. Samuel J. Andrews, D.D. An Unknown Writer. Thomas Armitage, D.D. Johan Arndt, d. 1767. Thomas Arnold, D.D., d. 1842. William Arnot, D.D., d. 1875. John Arrowsmith, d. 1659. Simeon Ash, d. 1662. Bartholomew Ashwood, 1688. Merle D’Aubigne, d. 1872. Augustine, d. 430. | Peter Baro, d. 1621. Basil, d. 379. William Bates, D.D., d. 1699. Richard Baxter, d. 1691. Paul Bayne, d. 1617. E. R. Beadle, D.D. Benj. Beddome, 1752. Henry W. Beecher, d. 1887. Lyman Beecher, D.D., d. 1863. Willis J. Beecher, D.D. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D. Robert Bellarmine, d. 1621. J. A. Bengel, d. 1752. Bernard de Clairvaux, d. 1153. John Beveridge, d. 1793. E. Bersier, D.D., d. 1891. Rev. R. A. Bertram. Bp. Wm. Beveridge, d. 1708. Bibliotheca Sacra. Thomas Binney, D.D., d. 1874. William Binnie, D.D., d. 1886. History, Teachings and Use of Psalms. Edward C. Bissell, D.D. Samuel Blackerty, 1674. Prof. John S. Blackie. William G. Blaikie, D.D. George D. Boardman, D.D. Zachary Bogan, d. 1659. Robert Bolton, 1637. Andrew A. Bonar, D.D. Horatius Bonar, D.D., d. 1890. Rev. Robert Bond. Rev. Barton Bouchier, d. 1865. Rev. Francis Bourdillon. Prof. Francis Bowen, d. 1890. Rev. George Bowen. A. K. N. Boyd, D.D. John Boys, D.D., d. 1625. Rev. Charles Bradley, d. 1871. William Bradshaw, d. 1618. James Brand, D.D. Sir David Brewster. William Bridge, d. 1680. Rev. Charles Bridges, d. 1869. Exposition of Psalm, 119. John Brinsley, d. 1665. | | — | — | — | | A. B. | Clement E. Babb, D.D. Francis Bacon, d. 1626. Sir Richard Baker, d. 1645. George Bancroft, d. 1891. Albert Barnes, d. 1870. Isaac Barrow, D.D., d. 1677. John H. Barrows, D.D. | |

J. A. Broadus, D.D. Rev. S. A. Brooke. Bp. Phillips Brooks. Thomas Brooks, d. 1682. W. R. Brooks, D.D. Rev. Archibald G. Brown. David Brown, D.D. John Brown, D.D., d. 1858. Rev. J. Baldwin Brown. Sir Thomas Browne, d. 1682. James Buchanan, D.D., d. 1870. William Buckland, D.D., d. 1856. Wm. Ives Budington, D.D., d. 1879. C. C. J. Bunsen, d. 1860. Wm. M. Bunting, D.D. John Bunyan, d. 1688. Rev. George Burder, d. 1832. Rev. Samuel Burder, d. 1839. John W. Burgon, D.D., d. 1888. Edmund Burke, d. 1797. Bp. Gilbert Burnet, d. 1715. Jabez Burns, D.D., d. 1876. E. F. Burr, D.D. D. J. Burrell, D.D. Jeremiah Burroughs, d. 1646. N. C. Burt, D.D., 1874. George Bush, D.D., d. 1859. H. B. Horace Bushnell, D.D., d. 1876. Rev. C. H. Butcher. Bp. Joseph Butler, d. 1752. B. J. Glentworth Butler, D.D. H. Montagu Butler, D.D. W. A. B. Wm. Archer Butler, D.D., d. 1848. Wm. J. Butler, D.D.

George W. Cable.

John Caird, D.D., d. 1892.

Edward Calamy, d. 1666.

Rev. Gordon Calthrop.

Thomas Calvert, d. 1679.

John Calvin, d. 1574.

Rev. J. A. Camden.

Rev. Jas. M. Campbell.

R. S. Candlish, D.D. d. 1873.

Richard Capel, d. 1656.

Thomas Carlyle, d. 1881.

Bp. Wm. Boyd Carpenter.

H. S. Carpenter, D.D.

Rev. Alexander Carson, d. 1844.

Joseph Caryl, d. 1673.

Thomas Case, d. 1682.

A. Caspars, D.D.

Robert Cawdray, 1600.

P. A. Chadbourne, D.D., d. 1883.

T. C. Thomas Chalmers, D.D., d. 1847.

Jacob Chamberlain, D.D.

T. W. C. Talbot W. Chambers, D.D.

Wm. W. Champneys, D.D., d. 1875.

Samuel Chandler, D.D., d. 1756.

C. Chapman, D.D.

Stephen Charnock, d. 1680.

Theodore Christlieb, D.D.

Chrysostom, d. 407.

George B. Cheever, D.D., d. 1888.

Christian Treasury.

Richard W. Church, D.D., d. 1890.

M. T. Cicero.

Adam Clarke, D.D., d. 1832.

Samuel Clarke, D.D., d. 1682.

David Clarkson, d. 1686.

C. C.

Rev. C. Clemance.

Richard Clerke, d. 1634.

John Clifford, D.D.

Rev. Wm. B. Clulow, d. 1882.

Thomas Cobbet, d. 1685.

Rev. Ingram Cobbin, 1837.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, d. 1834.

John Collinges, D.D., d. 1690.

C. C. Colton, d. 1832.

Eustace R. Conder, D.D.

Lord Congleton, d. 1842.

Congregationalist (Boston).

Congregationalist (London).

Cook.

F. C. Cook, D.D.

Bib. Com. Psalms.

Joseph Cook.

Prof. Josiah Cooke.

Rev. Edward Cooper, d. 1833.

William Cooper, 1663.

Josiah Copley, d. 1884.

Victor Cousin, d. 1867.

Henry Cowles, D.D., d. 1881.

Com. on Psalms.

William Cowper, 1612.

Samuel Cox, D.D.

The Pilgrim Psalms.

John Cragge, 1657.

Daniel Creswell, D.D., d. 1844.

George Croly, D.D., d. 1860.

Timothy Cruso, d. 1697.

Ralph Cudworth, D.D., d. 1688.

John Cumming, D.D., d. 1881.

E. L. Curtis, D.D.

T. L. Cuyler, D.D.

Jean Daille.

R. W. Dale, D.D.

Thomas Dale, D.D.

Prof. James D. Dana.

A. B. Davidson, D.D.

Samuel Davies, D.D., d. 1761.

Rev. George Dawson, d. 1876.

Sir J. Wm. Dawson, LL.D.

Rev. William Dawson.

John Day, 1619.

C. F. Deems, D.D.

John De Liefde.

D.

Franz Delitzsch, D.D.,

Com. on Psalms.

Prof. M. S. De Vere.

John DeWitt, D.D.

Thomas Dick, D.D., d. 1857. David Dickson, d. 1662. Dictionary of Bible (Wm. Smith). Francis, Viscount Dillon. Jean Diodati, d. 1649. Philip Doddridge, D.D., d. 1751. Marcus Dods, D.D. John Donne, d. 1631. George Downame, d. 1634. Prof. Henry Drummond. Rev. James Drummond, 1864. Rev. R. Duckworth. M. B. M. Duncan, 1837. William Dunlop, d. 1720. J. Duns, 1868. Rev. A. E. Dunning. Joseph T. Duryea, D.D. Timothy Dwight, D.D., d. 1817. William Dyer, 1696. Daniel Dyke, d. 1614. Jeremiah Dyke, d. 1620. J. Oswald Dykes, D.D. Zachary Eddy, D.D., d. 1891. A. E. Alfred Edersheim, D.D., d. 1889. Rev. R. M. Edgar. B. B. E. Bela B. Edwards, D.D., d. 1844. John Edwards, D.D., d. 1716. Jonathan Edwards, D.D., d. 1758. Bp. Chas. J. Ellicott. C. J. E. C. J. Elliott, D.D. Bib. Com. Psalms. Epictetus, 100. E. Erskine, D.D., d. 1754. Thomas Erskine, 1823. Rev. Jas. H. Evans, d. 1849. G. H. A. Ewald, D.D., d. 1876. Examiner (N. Y.). Rev. Fred. W. Faber, d. 1863. P. F. Patrick Fairbairn, D.D., d. 1845. Samuel Fairclough, 1650. Anthony Farindon, d. 1658. Fred’k W. Farrar, D.D. A. R. Fausset, D.D. Studies in Psalms. Daniel Featley, d. 1636. Owen Felltham, 1637. Fenelon, d. 1715. John Flavel, d. 1691. Robert Flint, D.D. George P. Fisher, D.D. Samuel W. Fisher, D.D., d 1879. George Forbes, D.D. Voice of God in Psalms. J. F. John Foster, d. 1843. Christopher Fowler, 1678. Mark Frank, d. 1664. Benjamin Franklin, d. 1790. D. F. Donald Fraser, D.D., d. 1892. William Fraser, D.D., d. 1879.

Andrew Fuller, d. 1815.

Thomas Fuller, d. 1661.

Rev. C. W. Furse.

Rev. E. Garbett, d. 1887.

Rev. Charles Garrett, 1886.

Thomas Gataker, d. 1654.

John D. Geden, D.D., d. 1886.

Martin Geier, d. 1681.

Alex. Gerard, D.D., d. 1795.

J. Monro Gibson, D.D.

Edwin H. Gifford, D.D., 1865.

John Gill, d. 1771.

George Gilfillan, d. 1878.

E. H. G. E. H. Gillett, D.D., d. 1875.

Rev. John J. Given, d. 1881.

Wm. E. Gladstone.

Rev. Richard Glover, 1881.

Francis Godet, D.D.

John M. Good, D.D., d. 1827.

Rev. Francis Goode, 1848.

Rev. Chas. J. Goodhart, 1848.

Bp. Harvey Goodwin, d. 1892.

John Goodwin, d. 1665.

Philip Goodwin, 1658.

Thomas Goodwin, d. 1679.

Wm. H. Goold, 1851.

A. J. Gordon, D.D.

Robert Gordon, D.D., 1854.

John Gore, 1635.

“Gotthold,” C. Scriver, d. 1693.

William Gouge, d. 1653.

E. M. G. Edward M. Goulburn, D.D.

G. M. Grant, D.D.

William Grant, d. 1876.

Andrew Gray, D.D., 1616.

W. H. G. Wm. Henry Green, D.D.

Gregory Nazianzen, d. 389.

Richard Greenham, d. 1521.

William Greenhill, d. 1677.

Benj. Grosvenor, d. 1758.

Alex. Grosse, 1632.

Henry Grove, d. 1738.

Francois Guizot, d. 1874.

William Gurnall, d. 1679.

T. G. Thomas Guthrie, D.D., d. 1873.

George Hakewell, d. 1649.

Robert Haldane, d. 1842.

Rev. J. W. Haley, 1875.

Sir Henry Halford, d. 1844.

Arthur Hallam, d. 1833.

C. Cuthbert Hall, D.D.

Bp. H. Bp. Joseph Hall, d. 1656.

Robert Hall, D.D., d. 1831.

Rev. J. N. Hallock.

James Hamilton, D.D., d. 1867.

Humphrey Hardwick, 1644.

Nathaniel Hardy, d. 1670.

Rev. Augustus W. Hare, d. 1834.

Bp. Francis Hare, 1740. Rev. Julius C. Hare, d. 1855. Rev. S. A. Harlow. Rev. George Harpur, 1862. Rev. Henry Harris. J. H. John Harris, D.D., d. 1856. Robert Harris, D.D., d. 1658. Rev. J. C. Harrison. George Hartwig, M.D., 1853. F. R. Havergal, d. 1879. Rev. Robert Hawker, d. 1827. Hiram C. Haydn, D.D. Fred’k H. Hedge, D.D., d. 1890. Alex. Henderson, d. 1646. E. W. Hengstenberg, D.D., d. 1845. H. Matthew Henry, D.D., d. 1714. Com. on Psalms. Bp. J. P. K. Henshaw, d. 1852. J. G. Herder, d. 1803. S. E. Herrick, D.D. Hilary, d. 367. John Hill, d. 1746. Sir Richard Hill, d. 1808. Thomas Hill, 1642. Edward Hitchcock, D.D., d. 1864. Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D., d. 1887. Charles Hodge, D.D., d. 1878. Moses D. Hoge, D.D. Matthew Hole, d. 1730. O. W. Holmes, M.D. Rev. Wm. B. Homer, d. 1841. Rev. E. P. Hood. H. H. Herman Hooker, D.D., d. 1857. Richard Hooker, d. 1600. John Hooper, d. 1555. Thos. W. Hooper, D.D. M. H. Mark Hopkins, D.D., d. 1887. Bp. George Horne, d. 1792. Expos. of Psalms. Henry Horne. Anthony Horneck, D.D., d. 1697. Bp. Samuel Horsley, d. 1806. Thomas Horton, d. 1673. Bp. Wm. W. How, 1861. John Howe, D.D., d. 1705. William Howitt, d. 1879. Wayland Hoyt, D.D. Rev. G. H. Hubbard. Alex. Von Humboldt, d. 1859. Leigh Hunt. Bp. Frederick D. Huntington. William Huntington, d. 1813. Hermann Hupfield, D.D., d. 1866. Bp. John F. Hurst. Henry Hurst, d. 1690. W. R. H. Hutton. Prof. Thos. H. Huxley. Edward Hyde, D.D., 1658. Rev. W. D. Hyde.

Rev. J. R. Illingworth. Interior (Chicago). Joseph Irons, d. 1852. Edward Irving, d. 1834. Arthur Jackson, d. 1666. J. J. Bp. John Jackson, d. 1885. Thomas Jacombe, d. 1687. Rev. J. Angell James, d. 1859. William Jay, D.D., d. 1853. Henry Jeanes, d. 1662. Bp. John Jebb, d. 1833. William Jenkyn, d. 1685. G. S. H. J. G. S. H. Johnson, D.D. Bib. Com. Psalms. Joseph H. Jones, D.D. Wm. Jones (of Nayland), d. 1800. Edward Judson, D.D. M. M. Kalisch, 1858. Immanuel Kant, d. 1804. William Kay, D.D. d. 1886. The Psalms. John Keble, D.D., d. 1866. Thomas a Kempis, d. 1471. John Ker, D.D., d. 1886. Rev. Charles Kingsley, d. 1875. A. F. Kirkpatrick, D.D. Camb. Bib. Psalms. John Kitchin, 1660. John Kitto, D.D., d. 1854. F. W. Krummacher, D.D., d. 1868. Lamartine. Rev. William Landels. J. P. Lange, D.D., d. 1884. John Langley, 1644. Samuel Lavington, d. 1807. Edmond Layfielde, 1630. Stanley Leathes, D.D. Thomas LeBlanc, d. 1669. Joseph LeConte. Rev. Joseph Leckie, 1884. Ledger (Phila.) Samuel Lee, D.D., d. 1691. L. Abp. Robert Leighton, d. 1684. F. Lenormant, 1869. T. L. Tayler Lewis, LL.D., d. 1877. Wm. H. Lewis, D.D. 1852. H. P. L. Henry P. Liddon, D.D. d. 1890. John Lightfoot, D.D., d. 1675. Bp. J. B. Lightfoot, d. 1889. John Lillie, D.D. d. 1867. Abraham Lincoln, d. 1865. Rev. J. Knox Little, 1881. Adam Littleton, d. 1694. Rev. J. Livingstone. John Locke, d. 1704. Rev. N. Loraine, 1885. John Lorinus, d. 1634.

James Russell Lowell, d. 1891. Bp. Robert Lowth, d. 1787. Martin Luther, d. 1546. Thomas Lye, d. 1684. Rev. W. H. Lyttleton, d. 1884.

Alexander McCaul, D.D., d. 1863. James McCosh, D.D. Henry M. McCracken, D.D. Donald Macdonald, D.D. F. W. Macdonald. George Macdonald. J. R. Macduff, D.D. Rev. Alex. Mackennal, 1885. Rev. Chas. Mackintosh, 1875.

A. M. Alexander Maclaren, D.D. Sermons and Studies in many vols. and serials. John Maclaurin, d. 1754. Norman McLeod, D.D., d. 1872. N. McMichael, D.D., 1860. Pilgrim Psalms. Hugh Macmillan, D.D. Ministry of Nature; Bible Teachings in Nature; Two Worlds are Ours; etc. Bp. William C. Magee, d. 1891. William Makelvie, 1863. Asa Mahan, D.D., d. 1889. Card. Henry E. Manning, d. 1892. H. L. Mansel, D.D., d. 1871.

T. M. Thomas Manton, d. 1667. Edward Marbury, 1649. Henry March, 1823. Fredk. G. Marchant, 1882. Rev. J. H. Martin. Rev. Samuel Martin, d. 1878. James Martineau. Henry Martyn, d. 1812.

E. M. Erskine Mason, D.D., d. 1850. John Mason, d. 1763. William Mason, d. 1791. Samuel Mather, 1705. Fredk. D. Maurice, D.D., d. 1872. Peter G. Medd, D.D. Joseph Mede, d. 1638. Rev. Enoch Mellor, d. 1881. Henry Melvill, D.D., d. 1871. Armand de Mestral, 1856. Rev. C. W. Miller, 1883.

J. R. M. J. R. Miller, D.D. H. H. Milman, D.D., d. 1868. John Milton, d. 1674. Prof. O. M. Mitchell, d. 1862.

G. B. Bp. George Moberly, d. 1885. C. B. Moll, D.D. Lange Psalms. Rev. Capel Molyneux. Adolph Monod, D.D., d. 1856. Rev. J. S. B. Monsell. Aubrey L. Moore. Rev. Daniel Moore.

Bp. James Moorhouse. Hannah More, d. 1833. Rev. John Morison, 1829. Exposition of Psalms. Rev. Walter Morison, 1871. Robert Mossom, 1657. James B. Mozley, D.D., d. 1878. T. T. Munger, D.D. James G. Murphy, D.D., 1875. Com. on Psalms. Rev. Arthur Mursell, 1878. Wolfgang Musculus, d. 1563.

Rev. James Neil, 1882. Francis W. Newman. Card. John H. Newman, d. 1890. John Newton, d. 1807. Bp. Thos. Newton, d. 1782. William Nicholson, d. 1672. Robert Nisbet, 1863. Rev. Philip Norton, 1885.

O. G. F. Ochler, D.D. Rev. John Offord, 1867. John Owen, D.D., d. 1683.

Rev. Francis E. Paget, 1844. Rev. George Paine. Benjamin M. Palmer, D.D. Theodore Parker, d. 1860.

C. H. P. Chas. H. Parkhurst, D.D. Rev. A. J. Parry. Blaise Pascal, d. 1662. Francis L. Patton, D.D. William W. Patton, D.D., d. 1890. Andrew P. Peabody, D.D. Rev. M. G. Pearse, 1887. Henry Pendlebury, d. 1695. John Pennington, d. 1656.

P. Bp. J. J. Stewart Perow ne. Book of Psalms. Thomas T. Perowne, D.D. A. P. Austin Phelps, D.D., d. 1890. Rev. George Phillips, 1846. Joseph C. Philpot, D.D., d. 1869. Rev. Sam’l E. Pierce, 1818. A. T. Pierson, D.D. Rev. David Pitcairn, 1846 A. W. Pitzer, D.D. Elias Pledger, 1677. Pliny, d. 110. Wm. S. Plumer, D.D., d. 1880. The Psalms. E. H. Plumptre, D.D., d. 1892. Matthew Pool, d. 1679. Wm. B. Pope, D.D. Popular Science Monthly. E. S. Porter, D.D. J. L. Porter, D.D., d. 1889.

George Potts, D.D., d. 1864.

Rev. P. B. Power, 1862.

Viscountess Powerscourt.

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Francis Quarles, d. 1644.

Pasquier Quesnel, d. 1719.

A. R.

Robert Rainy, D.D.

Alexander Raleigh, D.D., d. 1880.

Edward A. Rand, D.D.

Rev. W. S. Randall.

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J. E. Rankin, D.D.

George Rawlinson, D.D.

Rev. R. D. B. Rawnsley.

Francis Raworth, 1656.

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Edouard G. Reuss.

North British Review, etc.

Edward Reyner, d. 1670.

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Jean Paul Richter.

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Ralph Robinson, d. 1655.

Robert Robertson, d. 1790.

S. R.

Stuart Robinson, D.D., d. 1881.

Rev. George Rogers, 1882.

Timothy Rogers, d. 1729.

William Romaine, d. 1795.

John J. Rousseau, d. 1778.

John Row, 1677.

John Ruskin.

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John Ryland, D.D., d. 1825.

Rev. R. H. Ryland, 1853.

Rev. N. G. Salter, 1840.

Samuel Salter, 1740.

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F. E. D. Schleiermacher, d. 1834.

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Rev. C. C. Shackford.

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Rev. T. H. Steel.

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John S. Stone, D.D., d. 1882.

Richard Salter Storrs, D.D., d. 1873.

Richard Salter Storrs, D.D.

John Stoughton, D.D.

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William Strong, d. 1654.

William Struther, 1633.

Daniel de Superville, d. 1728.

Leonard Swain, D.D.

George Swinnock, d. 1673.

William Symington, D.D., d. 1862.

Joseph Symonds, 1653.

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I·T.

Abp. A. C. Tait, d. 1882.

Rev. E. S. Talbot.

Isaac Taylor, d. 1865.

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Bp. Jeremy Taylor, d. 1667.

N. W. Taylor, D.D., d. 1858.

Thomas Taylor, d. 1632.

F. T. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D. Bp. Frederick Temple. F. Aug. G. Tholuck, D.D., d. 1877. Com. on Psalms. Jesse B. Thomas, D.D. Rev. J. H. Thomas. Chas. L. Thompson, D.D. J. P. T. Joseph P. Thompson, D.D., d. 1879. J. H. T. Wm. M. Thompson, D.D. J. H. T. J. H. Thornwell, D.D., d. 1862. Bp. Anthony W. Thorold. Joseph F. Thrupp, D.D., d. 1867. Com. Psalms. C. F. Thwing, D.D. Abp. Tillotson, d. 1694. S. S. T. Sunday School Times (Phila.) A. M. Toplady, D.D., d. 1776. John Trapp, d. 1669. Abp. R. C. Trench, d. 1886. H. B. Tristram, D.D. H. Clay Trumbull, D.D. Rev. Robert Tuck. Wm. H. Tucker, 1840. Rev. Richard Tudor, d. 1882. John Tullock, D.D., d. 1886. Rev. Sharon Turner, d. 1847. Rev. W. K. Tweedie. Thomas Tymme, 1634. Francis W. Upham, L.L.D. Rev. Joseph Vance. C. W. Van Develde, 1854. H. J. V. Henry J. Van Dyke, D.D., d. 1891. Henry Van Dyke, D.D. J. J. Van Oosterzee, D.D., d. 1882. Franciscus Vatablus, d. 1547. J. V. James Vaughan, D.D. Hermann Venema, d. 1787. Ralph Venning, d. 1673. Rev. Jas. H. Vidal, 1863. Antonio Vieyra, d. 1697. Bp. J. H. Vincent. V. Marvin R. Vincent, D.D. Gates into Psalm-Country; Sermons 3 vols. Alexander Vinet, D.D., d. 1847. S. D. Waddy, D.D. Charles Wadsworth, D.D. Rev. George Wagner, 1862.

Rev. William Walford, d. 1850. Robert Walker, D.D., d. 1783. Isaac Walton, d. 1683. Ralph Wardlan, D.D., d. 1853. Rev. R. Warner. John Warren, 1656. Pres. Wm. F. Warren, D.D. Bp. Richard Watson, d. 1816. Thomas Watson, d. 1689. Benjamin Weiss, 1856. John Welsh, d. 1676. Rev. N. Woolsey Wells. John Welsh, d. 1622. Bp. Brooke Foss Westcott. Westminster Ass’y Annotations, 1651. Abp. R. Whately, d. 1863. Henry Kirke White, d. 1806. John Whitlock, 1858. John G. Whittier. Bp. Sam’l Wilberforce, d. 1873. Daniel Wilcox, d. 1733. Robert Wilkinson, 1612. Rev. W. F. Wilkinson. Matthew Wilks. Edward Willan, 1645. Griffith Williams, 1636. Isaac Williams, D.D., 1864. W. R. W. William R. Williams, D.D., d. 1885. Thomas Williamson, 1630. John Willison, d. 1750. Sir Charles Wilson. William Wilson, d. 1873. E. C. Wines, D.D., d. 1879. Rev. Octavius Winslow, 1874. David Winters. William Wishart, d. 1727. Hermann Witsius, D.D., d. 1708. R. Wolcombe, 1612. Rev. John G. Wood, 1869. Theodore D. Woolsey, D.D., d. 1889. Bp. Christopher Wordsworth, d. 1885. Abraham Wright, d. 1690. Prof. Charles A. Young. Rev. E. K. Young. Richard Young, d. 1665. Robert Young, LL.D. Francis N. Zabriskie, D.D., d. 1891.

Date Due

| D 8-31 | | | | | — | — | — | — | | F 21 ‘44 | | | | | O 18 ‘45 | | | | | | | | | | JAN 1 ‘50 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

THE

Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.

THE REVISED TEXT; WITH COMMENTS SELECTED FROM THE CHOICEST, MOST ILLUMINATING AND HELPFUL THOUGHTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.

| | PAGE | | — | — | | Introductory, | 5 | | Chapter I., | 15 | | “ II., | 25 | | “ III., | 29 | | “ IV., | 33 | | “ V., | 39 | | “ VI., | 45 | | “ VII., | 49 | | “ VIII., | 54 | | “ IX., | 58 | | “ X., | 67 | | “ XI., | 72 | | “ XII., | 77 | | “ XIII., | 81 | | “ XIV., | 85 | | “ XV., | 92 | | “ XVI., | 97 | | “ XVII., | 102 | | “ XVIII., | 105 | | “ XIX., | 107 | | “ XX., | 115 | | “ XXI., | 118 | | “ XXII., | 125 | | “ XXIII., | 131 | | “ XXIV., | 136 | | “ XXV., | 139 | | “ XXVI., | 140 | | “ XXVII., | 144 | | “ XXVIII., | 147 | | “ XXIX., | 153 | | “ XXX., | 157 | | “ XXXI., | 160 | | “ XXXII., | 167 | | “ XXXIII., | 171 | | “ XXXIV., | 177 | | “ XXXV., | 182 | | “ XXXVI., 1-25, | 185 | | “ XXXVI., 26-33, XXXVII., | 189 | | “ XXXVIII., 1-38, | 195 | | “ XXXVIII., 39-41, XXXIX., | 209 | | “ XL. | 213 | | “ XLI., XLII., 1-6, | 213 | | “ XLII., 7-17 | 222 |

| Introductory, | 228 | | — | — | | Chapter I., | 233 | | “ II., | 242 | | “ III., | 247 | | “ IV., | 261 | iv

| Chapter | V., | PAGE | | — | — | — | | “ | VI., | 272 | | “ | VII., | 276 | | “ | VIII., | 284 | | “ | IX., | 286 | | “ | X., | 291 | | “ | XI., | 295 | | “ | XII., | 300 | | “ | XIII., | 308 | | “ | XIV., | 312 | | “ | XV., | 318 | | “ | XVI., | 329 | | “ | XVII., | 336 | | “ | XVIII., | 345 | | “ | XIX., | 350 | | “ | XX., | 358 | | “ | XXI., | 362 | | “ | XXII., | 370 | | “ | XXIII., | 373 | | “ | XXIV., | 384 | | “ | XXV., | 395 | | “ | XXVI., | 399 | | “ | XXVII., | 403 | | “ | XXVIII., | 406 | | “ | XXIX., | 410 | | “ | XXX., | 416 | | “ | XXXI., | 420 | | “ | | 426 |

| Introductory, | | 431 | | — | — | — | | Chapter | I., | 440 | | “ | II, | 447 | | “ | III, | 452 | | “ | IV. | 466 | | “ | V. | 469 | | “ | VI. | 477 | | “ | VII. | 480 | | “ | VIII., IX, 1-6, | 489 | | “ | IX., 7-18, | 497 | | “ | X. | 503 | | “ | XI. | 507 | | “ | XII., 1-7, | 512 | | “ | XII., 8-14, | 521 |

| Introductory, | | 531 | | — | — | — | | Chapter | I., | 545 | | “ | II., | 549 | | “ | III., | 556 | | “ | IV., 1-16; V., 1, | 558 | | “ | V., 2-16, | 563 | | “ | VI., 1-13; VII., 1-5, | 567 | | “ | VII., 6-13; VIII., 1-14, | 570 |

NOTE.—A few changes have been made in the Revised Text, mainly in accordance with the rendering preferred by the American Committee; and some variant readings have been added in parenthesis. B.

ONE word resplendent with light, lying at the foundation of all the Jewish conceptions, set their minds at rest upon the origin and nature of things: In the beginning God created. Hence the greater minds among the Jews directed their thoughts to the problems of practical life. The result of these labors is given us in five books, which form, as it were, the code of the Hebrew wisdom. The subjects treated in them relate, not to the study of Being, but to the purely practical question of right living; they even exhaust it. These books are—Job, in which is revealed the art of suffering well; the Psalms, which give us a model of true prayer; Proverbs, in which is taught the art of acting rightly in all circumstances; Ecclesiastes, which treats of the right manner of enjoying the good things granted to man here below; and finally, in the Song of Songs, the wisdom of the Israelites rises to the contemplation of the supreme art—that of true and pure love. Godet.

The Hebrew classical poetry of the Solomonic school, which is devoted to Wisdom (Khokma), has a common character in all the five principal poetical books—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes—which is so unique and so clearly displayed that there can be no possible mistaking it wherever it may be found; nor could a work of that kind have been produced outside of the mental and spiritual atmosphere in which these originated. On its surface and by the help of its external accessories, the Book of Job has an archaic and an Arabic aspect; but below these, as its chief quality, are the soul and substance of the Hebrew Wisdom. Curry.

The Book of Job belongs distinctively to the so-called Wisdom literature of the Hebrews; being indeed, of all the products of that literature, the grandest in the reach and ripeness of its thought, and the completest in its literary form. What the Hebrews called Wisdom corresponds to what other nations call philosophy.

The books classified under that name contain the thoughts of earnest and observant minds on life, on conduct, on worldly prudence, on Divine things, on the mystery that encompasses the world. And they introduce us to a class of men, of whom otherwise little is known, the “wise men,” who in an unofficial way, and with objects less purely religious, taught and had influence along with priests and prophets in shaping the spiritual life of the Hebrew people. “The law shall not perish from the priest,” said the men who rejected Jeremiah’s prediction of evil (18:18), “nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.” Each of these three classes had its work to do in the Hebrew state, and each has left its record in the Hebrew literature. The Law and the Prophets, mighty as are their influence and doctrine, leave an important part unsupplied; they are supplemented, as they need to be, by the utterances of Wisdom. J. F. G.

The Book of Job does not appear to come exactly into either of the two great divisions of Hebrew poetry. It has epic features. It has a beginning, middle, end. It has the unities of time, place, and subject. It has its centre—one great thought, around which all others revolve. It has much of the charm of a lively drama. The six or eight characters which appear in it have marked characteristic differences. The book has great resemblance to a Greek tragedy, e.g., the Philoctetes of Sophocles. Again, it is a wonderful composition for its lyrical feeling. In pathos, in lofty flights of imagination, in delicate imagery, it takes a very high rank. Then it has brief, sententious proverbs, sometimes extending into lengthened exhortations and highly wrought descriptions. The book exhibits the highest reach of all Hebrew poetry and art. B. B. E.—In boldness of imagery and descriptive power, in fervid eloquence and sublimity of thought, there is nothing equal to it in the whole range of ancient and modern poetry. “The language of the Book of Job,” says M. Renan, “is at once the most limpid, condensed, and classical Hebrew. We find in it all the qualities of the antique style, such as conciseness, frequent obscurity and abruptness of expression, as if the words were struck out by blows of a hammer, together with a breadth of phrase which seems always to leave some hidden meaning to be discerned, and a delightful ring like that of hard and pure metal.” F. Bowen.

I call the Book of Job, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew; such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble book; all men’s book. It is our first oldest statement of the never-ending problem—man’s destiny and God’s ways with him here on this earth. And all in such free, flowing outlines; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its epic melody and repose of reconciliation. Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind, so soft and great; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars! There is nothing written. I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit. Thomas Carlyle.

It is without exaggeration that one in our own time has written of this extraordinary book as “a book of which it is to say too little to say it is unequalled of its kind, and which will one day, perhaps, when it is allowed to stand upon its own merits, be seen towering up alone far away above all the poetry of the world.” Its author lives in the imperishable monument of his genius. “With his unsullied name,” says Herder, “he has consigned to oblivion all that was earthly; and leaving his book for a memorial below, is engaged in a yet nobler song in that world where the voice of sorrow and mourning is unheard, and where the morning stars sing together.” Aglen.

Its most striking features are depth and boldness of speculative inquiry, of research, not only into what may be known of the dealings of God with man, but of the principles on which those dealings rest. The characters stand out each and all in broad, strong outline, with traits of surpassing delicacy and vigor. The historical narrative is clear and rapid, with the simplicity and grace of antique letters; the dialogues full of vehement outbursts, vivid imagery, and sudden alternations of passionate struggles, and deep, calm, earnest contemplation of spiritual truths. The reader is irresistibly impressed with the reality of the transactions, with the truth and naturalness of the feelings brought into play. Nor is this impression weakened when we consider the style of Job. All critics recognize its grand, archaic character. Firm, compact, sonorous as the ring of pure metal, severe and at times rugged, yet always dignified and majestic, the style belongs essentially to a period when thought was slow, and laboring for utterance, but profound and intensely concentrated, full of weighty and oracular sayings, such as were fit to be engraved upon rocks with a pen of iron and in characters of molten lead. Cook.

As to the speeches, whether reported verbatim or only for substance of thought, the poetic form and dress being given with the writer’s own hand, with free allowance for his own literary taste and skill in setting forth the differing views, it may be remarked: 1. The tone of high and well-sustained literary culture and finish, coupled with poetic genius, forbids the supposition of an off-hand discussion reported verbatim. 2. The literary style is one and not many, indicating the work of one mind. If each one of the six speakers had been precisely reported, it is simply impossible that there should not have been more diversity in literary merit and finish than is apparent here. H. C.

Relative Position and Teaching of the Book.

The history of Job is one among a great body of signal facts illustrative of God’s ways with men and of His plan of grace. The Book of Job is one of a long series of inspired writings through which it has pleased God to make known His will and to reveal Himself. The books of Moses contain God’s covenant with Israel as a nation. The historical books record His dealings with the people as such. The books of the prophets make known His will to Israel and concerning Israel as the people of God. These set forth the general principles and methods of the Divine administration. The promises and threatenings concern the entire body of the people or some considerable section of them, and individuals share the fortunes of the mass. But Job stands alone and by himself. He is dealt with as an individual, not as one of a certain race or nation, and particularly not as one of the chosen seed or covenant people, to which he does not even belong. In his history we see the righteousness of God in its relations not to Israel, but to an individual man. The righteousness of God in its more general and obvious manifestations is assumed as the starting-point. This is taken for granted as well understood and agreed upon between Job and his friends at the outset. But a crisis occurs in Job’s spiritual history in which the opinions that they have hitherto entertained are not adequate. A state of affairs arises at variance with their defective notions of the Divine righteousness. In the struggle that ensues, new light is imparted, and more accurate conceptions are reached. God’s righteousness had been inadequately apprehended in two respects, belonging severally to the two poles of Old Testament truth or the two phases of Old Testament instruction, the Law and the Gospel. The question that agitates the soul of Job is that of his personal relation to God. Is he the object of the Divine displeasure, or will God accomplish his salvation? But in fact he knew neither the extent of the Divine displeasure nor the greatness of God’s salvation. The righteousness of God condemned more in him than he suspected; while that which he looked upon as a sentence of condemnation was a measure of God’s grace. W. H. G.

The Great Solved Problem of the Book, and How it was Solved.

It is Job himself, the man Job, with his bewilderment of doubt, his utter honesty with himself and the world, his outreaching faith, his loyalty through all darkness and mystery to what is godlike, who is the solution of the Job-problem, far more truly than Job’s words, or the words of Elihu, or the august address from the whirlwind. How God deals with men, and how men may interpret His dealings; why God sees fit to afflict the righteous; these are indeed important questions, and not to be ignored; but more vital still is the question what Job is, becomes, achieves, in the fiery trial of God’s unexplained visitation. In the answer to that personal question lies the supreme answer to all the rest. It is not a mere author that we find here, but a man. And as we trace the progress of Job’s soul, step by step, revealed to us through his own words and through the attacks of his friends, we shall be brought to a contemplation of greatness in life and character such as, for sublimity, it will be hard to parallel in literature, however highly we may value the divinest creations of an Æschylus or a Milton. Thus, in the person and spiritual history of Job, we are brought back to the narrative basis which, so long as we consider only the discourses of the poem, we are in danger of ignoring. Under these discourses we are to trace not the building of a system, but the progress of a character, tried, developed, victorious; for they reveal how the patriarch works out, or perhaps we may better say embodies, the solution of a great problem.

What, then, is the problem, if such is its solution? We need not look far for the answer to this question. The problem, propounded by Satan at the outset, and tested by permission of Jehovah, is, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” This is, of course, the sneer of utter selfishness against all that is loyal and disinterested; it asks, in effect, Is there such a thing as whole-souled, self-forgetting service of God, just for His sake and for righteousness’ sake? And Job’s life, as it is traced in the glowing, indignant, faith-inspired words of his complaint, is the triumphant answer. Job does fear God for naught—that is, his integrity is no vulgar barter for wages, as Satan supposes, but deeply founded in the truth of things, so deeply that he takes leave of friends, of family, of life; nay, of God Himself, as he has hitherto regarded God, in order to be true. And if Job, a man like ourselves, has wrought out the answer, then the answer exists in humanity. There is such a thing as disinterested piety, and it contains whole worlds of faith and insight. Or, to gather the history before us into a sentence: There is a service of God which is not work for reward: it is a heart-loyalty, a hunger after God’s presence, which survives loss and chastisement; which in spite of contradictory seeming cleaves to what is godlike as the needle seeks the pole; and which reaches up out of the darkness and hardness of this life to the light and love beyond. This, if we must chill it down from the glow of its personal and poetic utterance to a generalization, is what the Book of Job stands for. But of this answer, as of the problem, the hero is as little aware as the rest. Wrought out in darkness and anguish, it is known only to those celestial spectators who rejoice, and to that scoffing spirit who is discomfited by it. For the answer is not put in words, nor made a didactic issue; it is lived. J. F. G.

The Main Question Discussed by Job and his Friends; and its Twofold Answer in the Discourses of Elihu and of Jehovah.

It is virtually the one question of life which meets us at every turn, which out of the pale of revelation is enveloped in impenetrable obscurity, and which, even with the light shed upon it by the promises of the Gospel, is by no means devoid of profound mystery—namely, the unequal distribution of suffering in the world, and the blindness with which the righteous rather than the wicked appear to be selected as its victims. Leathes.—The question discussed in the Book of Job is one of the most difficult in theological science. Why does not a just God treat men in the present life according to their character? Why does vice so often go unpunished? Job’s friends cut the knot by denying the fact. To uphold their side of the question, they misrepresented the general experience of man. Job felt the difficulty, but could not solve it. He was fully conscious of his own integrity, and he could not see why he was visited with such unparalleled sufferings. To the depth of emotion consequent on the discussion of this theological question, the whole compass of Greek poetry, perhaps, supplies no parallel. B. B. E.

Among the mysteries of God’s providence there is perhaps no mystery greater than the law by which suffering is meted out in the world. It is not a mystery that sin should bring forth sorrow; it is not a mystery that pain, disease, and death should be the fruit of man’s fall. The really difficult problem is not the problem of suffering in the abstract; it is the problem of the meting out of suffering on any theory; it is the problem why the innocent are called upon to suffer while the guilty too often escape; it is the problem why the purest, simplest of our race should drain the cup of sorrow, while the ungodly have more than their hearts desire, and have neither affliction in their life nor pain in their death. This is the problem which comes before us in that grandest of poems, which has ever sounded the deeps of the human heart, the poem of Job. We have in this book the problem worked out, and three answers given. First is the answer of the three friends who come to condole with Job in his affliction. One after another they repeat the same commonplaces of their creed—God is just, and therefore God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. If a man suffers, he suffers because he deserves it. The sufferer himself indignantly repudiates this belief. It is of no use to tell him he has been a hypocrite, an evil-doer; he denies the accusation; he will be true to God and to the method of His justice so far as he knows it, but he must be true to his conscience; he will not say, “I am guilty,” when he knows he is innocent. But there is another theory of suffering which approaches more nearly to the truth, which is also given in the Book of Job. Elihu declares that God’s purpose in chastisement is the purification of His servant. Here certainly is a step in advance. To see a purpose of love in affliction is to turn it into a blessing. But the mystery of suffering is not fully explained even when this purifying power is assigned to it. There is a suffering which is not even for the salvation or purification of the individual soul, but for the glory of God. If we look at the prelude of the book, we learn this lesson. Satan insinuates that the piety of Job is a selfish piety. His challenge strikes at the nature of God Himself. And God accepts the challenge. This is the key to the enigma, though Job knew nothing of it. Surely no more noble part can be assigned to any man than to be the champion of God. Men may mock at the Gospel and its promises; they may charge the followers of the Crucified with selfish aims and sordid motives; but one saint, who knows that the glory of God is in his hands, shall answer the sneer. His submission, self-sacrifice, and love shall compel the world to confess that God is love, and that man loves God for Himself. Perowne.

The first half of the correct, positive solution of the problem, consisting in the presentation of the chastening and purifying aim of unmerited suffering (that is, sufferings not direct punishments for specific sins), is contributed by the discourses of Elihu. They seek, in a way which accords with Prov. 3: 11, to exhibit the sufferings of the righteous man as chastisements and means of purification, having “the sin of the righteous man indeed for their ground, but having for their motive not God’s wrath, but His love, aiming to refine and to advance the sufferer.” (Dillmann.) The other half of the positive solution of the problem, consisting in the exhibition of the suffering of the righteous as ordained to prove them and to test their innocence, finds expression in the discourses of Jehovah, in His judicial arbitration between the contending parties, as well as in His actual restoration of Job’s former prosperity. According to this, the profoundest solution, in which the whole scope of the book culminates, and finds its definitive authoritative expression, the afflictions of the innocent are “means of proving and testing, which, like chastisements, find their motive in the love of God. Their object is not, however, the purging away of the sin which may still cling to the righteous man, but, on the contrary, the manifestation and testing of his righteousness.” (Delitzsch.) A. B. D.

The hardest, the severest, the last lesson which man has to learn upon this earth, is submission to the will of God. It is the hardest lesson, because to our blinded eyesight it often seems a cruel will. It is a severe lesson, because it can be only taught by the blighting of much that had been most dear. It is the last lesson, because when a man has learned that, he is fit to be transplanted from a world of wilfulness to a world in which one will alone is loved, and only one is done. All that saintly experience ever had to teach resolves itself into this, the lesson how to say affectionately, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” Slowly and stubbornly our hearts acquiesce in that. The holiest, so far as he has mastered the lesson, will acknowledge that many a sore and angry feeling against his God had to be subdued, many a dream of earthly brightness broken, and many a burning throb stilled in a proud, resentful heart, before he was willing to suffer God to be sovereign in His own world, and do with him and his as seemed to Him best. The earliest record that we have of this struggle in the human bosom is found in the Book of Job. It is the most ancient statement we have of the perplexities and miseries of life, so graphic, so true to nature, that it proclaims at once that what we are reading is drawn from life. What is the Book of Job but the record of an earnest soul’s perplexities? What falls from Job’s lips is the musing of a man half-stunned, half-surprised, looking out upon the darkness of life, and asking sorrowfully why are these things so? F. W. R.—There are, from his point of view, two conflicting elements: the theory of retribution, which seems to him inseparable from faith in the justice of God, and the unwavering testimony of his conscience, which, in his present circumstances, protests against this theory; hence his perplexity. The conflict within him is not between good and evil, but between good and good—between the justice of God affirmed by his conscience, and his relative innocence, no less firmly attested by that inner and sacred voice; so much so, that he feels himself driven logically either to give the lie to his conscience, if he would still uphold the justice of God, or deny God, if he would maintain the truth of his conscience. Terrible position! which constitutes precisely the climax of the trial of which he is unconsciously the subject. Godet.

Job’s experience touches our deepest life at many a point. Every one is called to suffer and be strong, every one meets with mysteries on the right hand and on the left, confusing and bewildering, whose solution must be left to the future. The struggle of Job is repeated over and over again in the experience of earnest souls, though the form and conditions of it are ever changing. Gilbert.

That the Book of Job is anterior to the exodus from Egypt is evident from the fact that we find in it no allusion of any sort to the events of the bondage in Egypt or to the deliverance—events which would have furnished most striking illustrations of the great subjects discussed in the book. Neither is there any allusion to or use made of the law given by Moses—the priesthood, sacrificial ritual, usages, institutions or Sabbaths of the Mosaic law, which must in some form have been referred to by a man of Job’s piety living in the vicinity of Egypt and of the Israelites, if the events recorded in Job had occurred after the time of Moses. It is hardly conceivable that if these discussions of the great questions of Providence and sin and retribution had occurred after the revelation to Moses and the institutions of religion appointed under that revelation, the mind of such men could have utterly ignored his existence.

In the second place, the positive evidence is equally clear to the point that this record in Job is of matters anterior to Moses. For all allusions in the book to the manners and customs of the times—domestic, social, or political—are found to fit in exactly with the patriarchal age, and can fit in only in the patriarchal age. The historical allusions are taken from patriarchal times. The style of life in which Job lived is plainly patriarchal. His riches, like Abraham’s, are rated by the numbers of his cattle and servants; and that, too, the same sorts of cattle, with the very same omission of horses and mules, as in Abraham’s case. Job speaks of himself as “going out to the gate through the city” and receiving the respect of every class, just as Lot sat in the gate. Mention is made of the natural productions and arts of Egypt, just such as we have shown in previous disclosures they did, existed there. Allusion also is made to revolutions, and the rising and falling of kingdoms, just such as we have shown occurred, both on the Nile and the Euphrates, in the patriarchal era. The entire theology of the book is the theology of Abraham; and the mode of worship—the father acting as priest of the family, without a separate order of priesthood, or any tabernacle—as in the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, fixes the era of the scenes described. Besides, the allusions to the various forms of idolatry are in accord with the theory of a patriarchal state. The only form of idolatry mentioned is the worship of the sun—Sabeism. And what confirms all is the fact that Job lived one hundred and forty years after his restoration to property—probably two hundred years in all—which shows that he must have lived in the earlier part of the patriarchal age, before human life was shortened to three-score years and ten or fourscore years. S. R.

The ablest critics of all schools—Ewald, Renan, Hahn, Schlottmann and Delitzsch—are unanimous in bearing testimony to the fact that in all the descriptions of manners and customs, domestic, social, and political, and even in the casual illustrations, the genuine coloring of the age of Job is faithfully observed; that the numerous allusions to historical events refer exclusively to patriarchal times; that there is a complete, and in their opinion an intentional and most skilful avoidance of occurrences, such as must have been well known to a later writer. From the beginning to the end of the book no single reference is made to the Mosaic law; the very word law (Thorah), so common in every other book, more especially in those of the age, to which modern critics refer this work, occurs only once (22:22), and then not in the special signification of a received code; the peculiar institutions of Israel, and the cardinal events of the national history after the Exodus, are wholly unnoticed. It should be borne in mind that no ancient writer ever succeeded in reproducing the manners of a past age, or in avoiding allusion to those of his own. The age of any ancient writer can be positively determined when we have a full and exact knowledge of the institutions and customs which he describes. All critics concur in extolling the fresh, antique simplicity of manners, the genuine air, the wild, free, vigorous life of the desert; and admit the contrast between the manners, thoughts, and feelings described in this book and those of the Israelites during the monarchical period. To this it must be added that the effect of reality is produced by a number of internal indications which can scarcely be accounted for, save by a faithful adherence to objective truth. In all the characters there is a thorough consistency, each agent in the transaction has peculiarities of thought and feeling, which give him a distinct and vivid personality; this is more especially the case with Job himself, whose character is not merely drawn in broad outlines, but, like that of David and others, whose history is given with most detail in Scripture, is developed under a variety of most trying circumstances, presenting under each change new aspects, but ever retaining its peculiar and most living individuality. Even the language and illustrations of the several speakers have distinctive characteristics. The incidents, moreover, which in a fiction would probably have been noted in a vague and general manner, are narrated with minuteness and an accurate observance of local and temporary conditions. The most refined art could scarcely produce this result; it is rarely attempted, still more rarely, if ever, attained in the most artificial ages; it was never dreamed of by ancient writers, and must be regarded in this case as a strong instance of the undesigned coincidences, which sound criticism accepts as a sure attestation to the genuineness of a work. Cook.

The doctrines held by the three friends were probably the earliest human opinions on the great problem of suffering, and therefore indicate the very early age of the book. H. C.

The celebrated patriarch whose history is recorded in the following book has been represented by some critics as imaginary, and his book as a fictitious dramatic composition. But he was evidently considered as real by the Prophet Ezekiel, who ranks Noah, Daniel, and Job together, as powerful intercessors with God: the first for his family, the second for the wise men of Babylon, and the third for his friends (14:14). And the Apostle James celebrates the exemplary “patience of Job” (5:11). And the book itself, the early admission of which into the sacred canon is strongly in favor of its veracity, describes the residence of Job and his friends with all the geographical precision of true history. Hales.—That the Book of Job was written as a literal relation of actual events is evident from the style of the author, from his mode of introducing the subject, and also from the circumstantial detail of habitation, kindred, and condition, as well as from the names of the persons therein mentioned, which correspond with other accounts of the age and country in which Job is generally supposed to have existed. Gray.—It is related not as a parable, but as a history, instructive throughout, as all the Bible histories are, but still an actual, veritable occurrence. And Job is spoken of in other parts of Scripture as a real person, and in connection with other real persons like Noah and Daniel, and the events of his life are referred to in a manner which implies that they had actually occurred. We can have no doubt, therefore, that, with all the poetic embellishment of the narrative, Job did actually live, and the history took place substantially as it is here related. W. H. G.

Surely the designations “Temanite, Shuhite, Naamathite” might have been spared, unless they were intended to indicate that these persons really had “a local habitation and a name.” Mention is made, too, of the “Sabeans,” the “Chaldeans,” and the “Wilderness.” Now, the two former surely need not have been mentioned, as the term “robbers” would much better have suited the context had the subject been merely parabolic; but the introduction of the latter in conjunction with the names of those people gives the whole not more the air of historical narration than it does of geographical accuracy. Then the feasting of the sons of Job, each in his day—that is, probably, during the period of a week, these sons being seven in number; Job’s sending for and admonishing them; his offering up a sacrifice at the same time for each of them, seems overdone and unnecessary, if all that was wanting was merely to illustrate the doctrine that patient faith in God was a virtue acceptable to Him. For here we are led into particulars which were not only not Jewish, and which never could have been countenanced by that nation, much less have recommended any doctrine, but which had nothing whatever to do with the lesson principally taught in the book; and, what is most remarkable, which appear to have been strictly historical truths as regards the customs of the time at which the book appears to have been written. These and many other points of the like nature are circumstances which we expect to find in a historical narrative, but not in a parable or allegory, where they would be superfluous and obstructive. Kitto.—Allegories and parables do not descend to such details of birth, location, children and friends, as we find here. But what should be decisive with those who accept the inspiration of the Scriptures is the fact that the Prophet Ezekiel names Noah, Job, and Daniel together as men powerful with God, and he would hardly mention a fictitious character thus in connection with two historic characters. “Ye have heard,” says the Apostle James, “of the patience of Job.” An apostle would hardly cite a fictitious character when exhorting Christians to “take the prophets for an example of patience and suffering affliction.” In short, it will be found that no theory of the age of this book or its character and scope so well fits in with all the facts, as that which accepts it as the history of a real personage living at some period between Abraham and Moses in the land of Uz, a country lying east of Canaan and toward the Euphrates. S. R.

Considerations showing Job to have been a veritable historic personage: 1. The points of the whole case are given with very great minuteness, as those of a real history. 2. The agencies which brought upon him his affliction and all the facts set forth as history correspond with the well-known circumstances of that country and age. 3. Subsequent sacred writers speak of Job as a real, not a fictitious person. In Ezekiel (14:14-20), the words are those of Jehovah Himself—“Though these three men” (all equally assumed to be real men), “Noah, Daniel, and Job,” etc. These men are adduced as notable examples of prevailing prayer in behalf of others. This assumes that they were real, not fictitious men. We must make the same inference from the words of James (5:11): “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.” H. C.—To argue and illustrate the mercy of the Lord from His asserted dealings with a fictitious character would seem well-nigh an approach to what we call blasphemy. Assuredly so in a case like this, where the writer is dealing with the plainest prose of deepest heart experience. B.—No argument in favor of regarding the story of Job as fiction can be drawn from the New Testament parables, for these differ widely from the apparent facts in the history of Job. The points made in the parables do not purport to be real history. They are simply supposed cases, set forth with the avowed purpose of illustrating great truths pertaining to the kingdom of God.

As to the writer’s knowledge of what transpired at the coming of Satan among “the sons of God,” and the ensuing conversation between Jehovah and Satan, those who admit inspiration at all in the writing of Scripture will have not the least difficulty in assuming inspiration here. H. C.—And certainly the reported speeches which comprise the book suggest no more or greater difficulty. In truth, the choice of the intelligent inquirer, limited as it is to inspiration, lies between an inspired myth or fiction and an inspired account of a real human history and experience. Sound common sense as well as the analogy of all revelation would seem to demand the restful acceptance of the latter alternative.

[We cite, finally, a passage that seems to contain in itself an invincible argument in support of the position here taken, though it stands in a different connection of thought upon the writer’s pages. It is, moreover, a just and noble summary of the book. B.]

If ever a book revealed a man, if ever through the indignant thrusts of controversy were heard the beatings of a warm human heart, it is in this story of the patriarch of Uz. Studied as an argument cunningly put together by a skilled reasoner, the Book of Job is beset with difficulties well-nigh insurmountable. Studied as the utterance of a man like ourselves, who speaks out in the natural style what is in him, it is the clear and unambiguous voice of humanity, which finds echo in all the world. Time and space are annihilated, and the unreal vagaries of speculation seem outlived, as this echo of our own deep consciousness comes floating to us across the centuries. It came glowing from a large human heart, from the furnace of universal human affliction; and it is adapted to reach every soul that has thought and suffered. . . . Its study will indeed reveal great problems, whose filaments stretch out through the world of theological and philosophical inquiry; it will not fail to deepen our sense of the marvellous literary art which has presided alike over word and plan; but, what is of more intimate concern to us, it will disclose to our gaze in clearer outlines one of the great of the earth, a man of fears and doubts like ourselves, rising up against his doom, which is humanity’s doom, and conquering his way to hope and peace. The man Job is one of the guiding figures of the ages, a world’s hero; whose words, the record of a great conflict and victory, we cannot afford to leave cloistered among the learned few. J. F. G.

The Book of Job is among those portions of Holy Scripture of whose canonicity there has never been any doubt. It is named in the canon of Melito, at the end of the Hagiographa, and immediately before the prophecy of Isaiah. Origen places it among the prophets, between Ezekiel and Esther; and Epiphanes (A D. 400), between Joshua and Judges. Jerome, following the Septuagint, assigns it the place that it holds in our English Bibles. In many of the Hebrew Bibles among the Germans its place is between the Proverbs and the Canticles; and in the Spanish Mss. and the Masora, and also in the Talmud, it stands between the Psalms and Proverbs. Among the moderns, while all the canons contain this book, there is no general agreement in respect to its relative position. Curry.

All authorities which define the Hebrew canon certify that Job belongs in it. How came it there? No books were ever admitted into that canon except those written by men accredited among the Hebrew people as “prophets.” The Jewish nation in all ages (Josephus being witness) held this doctrine tenaciously, and were ready to seal it with their blood, that holy men of God had given them certain writings, and that not a written word might be admitted into the sacred collection except those which came certainly and undeniably from the pen and the tongues of these prophets of God. The author of Job, therefore, must have been a known, accredited prophet of God. H. C.

As to the authorship of the book, nothing is known with certainty. Some have attributed it to Job himself; some to Elihu; others to some unknown Arabic author, under the impression that the book has been translated into Hebrew. But no competent Hebrew scholar can doubt that the poem is an original Hebrew work. Others, following the Jewish tradition, have attributed the book to Moses, while some have discovered in the philosophic cast of the poem the hand of Solomon. Both the authorship and the era must ever remain involved in doubt. A. B. D.

One thing seems now clear to all critics: it is that we are not to look for the author of the Book of Job outside the Jewish people. This is proved by the classical Hebrew in which it is written, and by the purely Jewish name of Jehovah, which is used in the historical parts, in the prologue and epilogue, and in the connecting narratives in the body of the book; while in the discourses of the friends and of Elihu, God is designated by the names El Shaddai, and Eloah, which are equally in use among other Semitic nations. Godet.

Taking all the ascertained facts into consideration, it may be confidently maintained that whether the writer of the book were a Palestinian Hebrew or not, he must have lived at a time and under circumstances which either kept him in ignorance of the institutions peculiar to Mosaism, or made him to a most remarkable extent independent of their influence. The hypothesis which, on the whole, seems least encumbered with difficulties, is that the work was written in the country of Job, probably by one of his descendants, but certainly after a considerable interval of time, the patriarch being evidently represented as belonging to another age, his own life extending to the fourth generation (42:16) of children born after his deliverance. Cook.

1. The creation of the world by one Supreme Being. This is the first great principle of natural religion; it is laid down throughout the whole book as an incontestable truth, but is particularly illustrated in the speech of Jehovah Himself. 2. The government of the world by the providence of God. 3. The corruption of man by nature. 4. The necessity of an atonement, prefigured in sacrifices, to turn away the Divine anger, and to render the Almighty favorable; also, the intercession and mediation of a righteous person on behalf of the guilty. 5. The certainty of a future resurrection and retribution. E. Copley.

Among all writings, inspired or uninspired, the Book of Job stands pre-eminent for its lofty representations of the pure moral personality, the holiness, the unchallengeable justice, the wisdom, the omnipotence, the absolute sovereignty of God. In the splendor of its theism it is unsurpassed. T. Lewis.

The book teaches us to recognize a fourfold purpose in human suffering. 1. There is a penal suffering with which God visits the ungodly. 2. There is a Divine chastisement imposed upon all men, which is necessarily due to the natural sinfulness of human nature. 3. There is also a special testing and purifying of the righteous imposed upon them by the love of God, for the purpose of delivering them from some secret pride, of leading them to humble and penitent self-knowledge, and of thus insuring to them the Divine favor. This is the doctrine which Elihu brings forward. And, finally, 4. There is a suffering which is designed to manifest the triumph of faith and the fidelity of the righteous. This it is which was the immediate object of Job’s afflictions, as already alluded to in the prologue, and evidenced to all in the epilogue. Proof is furnished in the case of Job that the faith of even a true servant of God may be sorely shaken; nay, that he may be brought to the very verge of despair, by the temptation of suffering; that nevertheless he cannot, even in the midst of rebellion against God, entirely give Him up; and, finally, that his fidelity stands the test, though he does not come through the trial without abundant cause for humiliation. Such sufferings are akin to those endured as testimony, to sufferings entailed by confession of the truth, and zeal for the house of God, as spoken of in many of the Psalms and by Jeremiah. While the Book of Job offers a key to the afflictions of the righteous, it at the same time furnishes reasons for believing in the righteous providence of God, from the consideration of His character and His dominion over nature. From the character of God—in the profound speech of Elihu (34: 10 sqq.), the fundamental thought of which is: God, by reason of His power over the world, can never be unjust. For the world is not a thing alien to Him, a thing intrusted to Him by another, but His own possession, and all life therein is derived from His breath. God cannot be unjust to that which He Himself called into existence and maintains therein. It is because He is the Creator and Governor of the world that He is also the only source of right therein. He so directs the lot of individuals and nations that right is at last made manifest. This oneness of power and righteousness in God is also brought forward in the second address of the Lord to Job (chap. 40), and the subject applied to man, to show that if his righteousness is to be vindicated at the expense of the Divine righteousness he ought also to be possessed of Divine power. But Divine providence also may be inferred from God’s dominion over nature. This proposition is already prepared for in chap. 38, the idea being there carried out that man, though incapable of becoming possessed of the Divine wisdom itself—of the thought according to which the world is ordered—is yet able to recognize its traces in the whole economy of nature, and may therefore, with regard to the Divine appointment of human life, resign himself to and fall back on the fear of God. This point of view is especially maintained by Elihu. God approaches man in nature as an incomparable teacher (36: 22), everywhere manifesting to him His wisdom and power. O.

As for the scope or use of this book:

First. It aims at our instruction, and that in divers things: 1. It instructs us how to handle a cross; how to behave ourselves when we are in a conflict, whether outward or inward; what the postures of the spiritual war are, and with what patience we ought to bear the hand of God and His dealings with us. 2. God would have us learn that afflictions come not by chance—that they are all ordered by Providence, in the matter, in the manner, and in the measure. 3. Another thing we are to learn from this book is this: the sovereignty of God—that He hath power over us, over our estates, our bodies, our families and our spirits; that He may use us as He pleases, and we must be quiet under His hand; when He cometh and will take from us all our comforts, we must give all glory to Him. This book is written for this especially, to teach us the sovereignty of God and the submission of the creature. 4. It teaches us that God doth sometimes afflict His children out of prerogative; that though there be no sin in them, which He makes the occasion of afflicting them, yet for the exercise of His grace in them, for the trial of their graces and to set them up for patterns to the world, God may and doth afflict them. Though no man be without sin, yet the afflictions of many are not for their sins. 5. There is this general instruction which God would have us learn out of this book—that the most justly possessed and best-secured estate in outward things is uncertain—that is, there is no trusting to any creature comforts. 6. God would show His people the strength and stability of faith. How unconquerable it is—what a kind of omnipotency there is in grace! God would have all the world take notice of this in the Book of Job, that a godly person is in vain assaulted by friends or enemies, by men or devils, by wants or wounds; though he be even benighted in his spirit, though God Himself take away the light of His countenance from him, yet God would have us learn and know that over all these a true believer is more than conqueror. For here is one of the greatest battles fought that ever was between man and man, between man and hell; yea, between God and man; yet Job went away with the victory. True, grace is often assaulted; it never was or never shall be overthrown. 7. This also we may learn—that God never leaves or forsakes His totally or finally. 8. Lastly, the book teaches us that the judgments of God are often secret, but they are never unjust; that though the creature be unable to give a reason of them, yet there is an infinite reason for them. These are the general uses from the general scope and intendment of the book by way of instruction.

Secondly. This book serves to convince and reprove: 1. That slander of worldly men and of Satan, who say that the people of God serve Him for their own end. 2. To convince and reprove all those who judge of the spiritual estate of those that are under the hand of God in sore afflictions by some unbecoming and rash speeches which may fall from them in the time of these their conflicts, when troubles and sufferings are upon them. 3. To convince and confute those who judge of men’s spiritual estates by God’s dealing with them in their outward estates. 4. To convince and confute that cursed opinion that a man may fall finally and totally away from grace and from the favor of God. God hath showed by this history that such an opinion is a lie. Certainly God would have all the world know that free grace will uphold His forever. 5. To convince all those of pride and extreme presumption who think to find out and to trace the secrets of God’s counsels, the secrets of God’s eternal decrees, the secrets of all His works of providence; whereas God showeth them in this book that they are not able to find out or comprehend His ordinary works; they are not able to comprehend the works of creation; how are they able then to find out the counsels of God in His decrees and purposes and judgments?

Thirdly. There is much for consolation: 1. That all things do work for the good of those that love God. 2. That no temptation shall ever take hold of us but such as God will either make us able to have, or make a way of escape out of it. We can be in no condition cast so low but the hand of God can reach us, find us, send in deliverance and raise us up again. Caryl.

In the Revision many of the obscurities of the Authorized Version are removed. There is probably no part of the Scriptures in which so much has been gained. Yet it must be conceded that it does not seem possible that translation, however accurate and skilful, should accomplish everything that might be desired. This probably arises in some measure from the nature of the composition. It records the complaints and outcries of a sufferer, the flow of whose thought and feeling is constantly interrupted by the depth of his emotion. His passionate utterance is suddenly checked by the very power of his grief, and after moments of silence he bursts out afresh in words which have no direct connection with the language preceding. De Witt.

Plan or Structure of the Book.

I. Introductory Narrative in prose. Chaps. 1, 2. II. The Poem. Chaps. 3-42:6.

1. Job’s Complaint. Chap. 3. 2. The Debate, in three cycles.

(1) First cycle. Chaps. 4-14. (2) Second cycle. Chaps. 15-21. (3) Third cycle. Chaps. 22-26.

3. Job’s Second Complaint. Chaps. 27-31. 4. Elihu’s Speech, introduced by a short prose account of him. Chaps. 32-37. 5. The Lord’s Voice, and Job’s Submission. Chaps. 38-42:6.

III. Concluding Narrative, in prose. Chap. 42:7-17. D. F.