Job 27

Chap. XXVII. Ver. 1—23. Job proceeds in his defence, and again solemnly protests his innocence.— The third of the friends making no reply, and Bishop Lowth,) Job at length opens the true sentiments of his heart concerning the fate of the wicked; he allows that their prosperity is unstable, and that they and their descendants But he hides the splen- Anon, “the wind” disperseth the tarnish or beautifi the others remaining silent, (says Ver. 22. God shall cast.—Scott (the poet) and Dr. Stock consider the name of God as here improperly supplied, and refer the whole passage to the tempest. “It shall cast upon him his fury; in fleeing he would flee.” So the. Ver. 23. Men shall clap.—If the word God be improperly supplied, so also men: and the critics just named, apply the whole of the description to the storm of east wind, the levanter, which may poetically be said, to clap and hiss, as we apply to our winds the terms howl and whistle.

Notes on the verses

Ver. 6. Hell is naked.—Heb. Sheol; the place of punishment just alluded to, * the bottomless pit,’ cp yem by the ancients to lie under the great abyss of waters, in the centre of the earth.:: Ver. 7. He (God) stretcheth out the north (i. e. the northern hemisphere; or rather, the stars of the North Pole) over the empty place.—Probably meaning, the unknown northern sea.——And hangeth the earth upon nothing.— That is, in the vast expanse of ether. So Milton: “And earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung.’ “ Ver. 9. He holdeth back the face of his throne.—That is, he withdraweth from human eyes the splendour of his presence, by covering it with his clouds. Ver. 10. Until the day and night come to an end.—See margin; I.

e. until there shall be no more alternate succession of day and night.; Ver. 11. The pillars of heaven tremble.—What are these? Either the at; mosphere, which is poetically supposed to support the celestial spheres, and which is violently agitated by tempests; or the mountains, which appear to vulgar eyes to support the heavens. See (Psalms 18:7). G _ Ver. 12. Smiteth through the proud.—That is, the proud waves. See Isa. Ver. 13. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens.—Scott (the poet) renders it, “ By his wind the heavens become serene.” The word Ruach is often rendered wind, as in (Job 37:21), &c. ‘So Luther.— His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.—This line is variously rendered.

For “ formed,” Scott (the poet) reads “slayeth,” on the supposition that a tempest destroys the monsters of the sea; for it is the sea-serpent which is supposed to be here intended. But others, more in unison with the preceding imagery, refer to the celestial sign Draco, which includes the stars between the great and little bear, (Ursa major and minor,) near the North Pole. [Probably the immense constellation, called by Milton, “Ophiuchus huge, that fires the arctic sky;” as it is not likely that this sublime writer should in an instant descend from “garnishing the heavens” to the formation of a reptile.]—Bagster. Dr. Boothroyd, after Schultens, Dathe, &c. renders the expression very literally; “‘He pierceth the shooting serpent.”’

From this passage, says Dr. Boothroyd, the rising of these stars must have been attended with tempestuous weather; and hence to pierce the serpent, denotes to remove, or still, a tempest. Good, “out- Ver. 14. Lo, these are parts (literally, “extremities;’’ Dr. lines”) of his ways: but how little a portion (Good, ‘‘whisper’’) is heard of The ort- —See (Job 4:12), where it is applied to the voice of spectre.. ginal term, literally “a word whispered,” is very beautiful and expressive. XXVII. Ver. 1. Job continued his parable.—That is, oration. Chap. i Ver. 3. Spirit of God.—This is properly explained in the margin. Ver. 7. Let mine enemy be as the wicked.—That is, let him be as prosperous as any wicked man can be.

Ver. 11. I will teach you by the hand.—See Margin; or rather, perhaps, as we might say, “by the aid,” or help of God. Hand, figuratively means Ver. 12. Altogether vain.—‘Why do ye thus babble babblings?”—Dr. Ver. 15. Those that remain of him.—Rather, ‘‘his remains shall be entombed in death;”’ i. e. silently, and without pomp. “No sepulchre, no funeral dirge.”—Dr. Good. Cas Ver. 16. Raiment as the clay.—That is, in great abundance. As the Asiatics scarcely ever change their fashions, they frequently hoard up a great quantity (D’Herbelot tells us, that Bokhten, an illustrious poet of Cufah, of garments. ‘in the ninth century, had so many presents made him, that at his death he was possessed of one hundred suits of clothes, two hundred shirts, and five hundred turbans.

]—Bagster. ’ Ver. 13, As a moth—as a booth.—That is, “feeble in its structure and ma- “The kind of booth here alluded to, terials, and short in its duration.” —Good. is one formed of boughs, for the watchmen of the garden or vineyard. all not add to do it;” i. e. Ver. 19. He shall not be gathered.—Hebrew, ‘3 ¢ i “shall not do so again.”—Boothroyd. He is supposed to be carried off with a hurricane in the night