Job 37

Chap. XX XVII. Ver. 1—24. Elihu continues his beautiful His voice exalted with majestic sound, Augments its terror through the vaulted round: We hear, we shudder, but in vain inquire ! How formed his voice, and how inflamed his fire. Great is the thundering God, and great his deeds; Nor less his work our loftiest thoughts exceeds.”” To this description succeeds that of an eastern winter, with snow and rain, the latter of which times the former) accompanies the thunder. During rains and floods all out-door labour is interrupted, an wild beasts retire into their dens in the mountains. ariseth the whirlwind from the south, or the cold the clouds are exhausted and the floods from the north are frozen.

All these changes: are wrought by the divine wisdom, whose counsels are inscrutable; not to be canvassed, but adored. Chap. XX XVIII. Ver. 1—41. Job from the whirlwind.—The sixth and last part of the poem commences with this divine appearance. the voice of thunder increasing louder graduall approaching; and louder; the elements are extremely agitated, and the storm 1 Kings, xix. 12.) and not during the raging of the storm, that the voice from the cloud (probably the Shechinah) uttered the sublime oracle which we are now about to consider. This Dr. Young calls, “by much the finest part of the noblest and most ancient poem in the world;”—" the grandeur’ of which, according to Bishop Patrick, exceeds “ all other poetry, a3 senerally (and even somethunder is louder than a whisper.”

We must recollect that Job, i speeches, had challenged the Deity to his trial, (particularly in (Job 41:35), &c.) and now the challenge 1s accepted, and he is called to receive judgment: “Who? is this by words without knowledge ?”’ that darkeneth counsel i A series of interrogatories then follows, the noblest that can be conceived of, the direct tendency of ‘; Job, and to produce that confession which begins the last The Almighty now addresses chapter of the book, and which forms, or leads to, the catastrophe of the poem. What relates to the creation, demands The storm had been our peculiar notice.; ae The creation of our world, and of the system with which it stands connected, as it was a display of the divine glory and benevolence, so was it a matter of joy and gratulation to the holy angels: “ae With joy and shout They touched their golden harps, and hymning, praised God and his works; Creator him they sung.”

The next object of interrogation is the sea, which is subjuated alone to the divine decree. The History of England in the eleventh century, furnishes an anecdote that will illustrate this circumstance. Canute the Great, (as he was called,) king of Denmark, had conquered great part of England, and was styled, by his flattering courtiers, Monarch of the Ocean. As he was one day at Southampton, in order (it is said) to reprove their folly, he ordered a chair to be set for him on the beach, while the tide was rising, and commanded the waves not to wet his feet; the tide, however, paying no regard to his commands, he took occasion to reprove a folly of his courtiers, by saying, He only ought to be called sovereign of the ocean, whom the winds and seas obey.

The singular expression (ver. 13.) of the morning taking hold of the ends (the extremities) of the earth to shake out the wicked, is thought to refer to two circumstances. 1. Night is the season of crime: but morning (as Job had himself asserted, (Job 24:16-17).) is ‘as the shadow of death” to the wicked, and drives them into retirement. And, 2. Morning was, in those early times, the season for the administration of justice. ((Psalms 101:8): (Jeremiah 21:12).) Morning was, therefore, in a twofold sense, terrible to crimmals and vagabonds, who fled from its presence. To others it appears, on the contrary, clothed with j beauty, when the earth “is changed as clay by the seal: when they (the morn and dayspring) present themselves in splendid attire’’—referring to the splendour of the rising sun, when he appears “asa bridegroom coming out of his chamber.”

((Psalms 19:5).) On this passage, the late pious Hervey remarks, that “The earth and all its productions receive from the rising sun both colour and beauty; as the clay (or wax) all their beautiful impressions from the seal.” We are now conducted (as it were) into the great abyss beneath, whence the sea receives its secret springs, which no mortal can discover: and into the regions of Sheol, and ot death, of which Job himself had sublimely discoursed in the xxvth chapter. We then again ascend to the earth, and a number of questions are proposed, as to the various -phenomena of nature, and “the ordinances of heaven;’” or, in common language, “ the laws of nature,” which the God of nature has impressed upon every department of his creation.

Such inquiries were well calculated to humble the high spirit of Job, and convince him of the folly of attempting to censure the dispensations of divine providence, which are certainly not less mysterious and unsearchable than the secrets of nature and

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXXVII. Ver. 1. Is moved.—* Is ready to bound out of its place.”— Bishop Lovoth. Ver. 2. Hear attentively the noise of, &e.—" Tremble at his voice.’— Lowth, &c. Ver. 3. He directeth it.—‘‘Its flash (or blaze) is beneath,” &c. Scott and Lowth.—Ends.—i. e. the extremities of the horizon.. Ver. 4, He will not stay them &c.—‘’ He deceiveth them not when his voice is heard;” Bishop Lowth. “ They cannot be searched (traced) out 3” Scott, note) mentions having witnessed the same in London; and the editor of this k can bear his own testimony be to a like fact.——Likezise, &c.—Heb. And to the showers of rain, and to the showers of rain of his strength;” i. e. eavy showers, This last expression refers to the latter or winter rain, in the €nd of September, or in the beginning of October.

508 ” description of the thunder storm, and. the sublime winter scenery of the East.—The storm scene here continued is so admirably rendered into English verse by Scott, that we cannot refrain from stpytes a few lines of it, relating to the commencement of this chapter. “Even while I paint this dreadful scene I start; My bosom scarce can hold its panting heart. Hark! tremble! murmurs in the distant air Whisper of God, his awful way prepare; He fires the heavens; earth to her distant shores, Feels the broad flashes; now his thunder roars; Ver. 7. He sealeth up, &c.—That is, the rain by overflowing the country, (which seems necessary to its fertility,) at the same time stops all agricultural and out-door labours.

The whirlwind that smote the house in which was Job’s family ((Job 1:19).) came from “the desert;” probably from the deserts of Africa, south of {du- * And cold from the (northern) scattering winds.”"—Scott (the poet.) Ver. 10. Straitened.—Scott, “ Hardened.” Boothroyd, “ Condensed.” Ver. 11. His bright cloud.—See margin. Clouds are spent by rain, and scattered by wind. f Ver. 12. It is turned round.—" Thus he turneth their courses by his councils.”” Boothroyd.: Ver. 13. Correction.—‘ Whether for correction or in mercy, he causeth it (the rain) to come upon the earth.” Scott and Boothroyd. _ Ver. 18. A molten looking-glass.—That is, a brazen mirror. See (Deuteronomy 27:23). Ver. 19. We cannot order our speech.—That is, we know not how to acdress him.——By reason of darkness.—That is, of ignorance.

4 Ver. 20. Shaill it be told, &c.—This is ed obscure; but may it not be read thus. “Shall that which I speak be told him? If a man (any one) speak (falschood,) surely,” &c. This may be a bold suggestion, and is offered with trembling, finding no meaning in the present version. Dr. Good seeing he could make no sense of the Hebrew, explains the whole as Arabic, and reads ver, 19 and 20 thus: ““Teach us how we may address him When arrayed in robes of darkness; (i. e. the thunder cloud.) Or, if brightness be about him, how 1 may commune; For if a man should then speak he would be consumed,” But is not this almost equally obscure?;. Ver. 22. Fair weather.—Heb. “ Gold,” or “golden; that is, brilliant shi ning weather.

Scott (the poet) and Boothroyd, “The golden (sun,”’) but “sun” is supplied. Dr. Henderson (of Russia) appiiee it to the splendid northern lights, which are always attended with a breeze from the north. Ver. 24. Who respecteth not any that aré wise of heart.—See (Job 5:13). ““ Who beholdeth the wise in But Schuwltens and Scoit (the poet) render this, heart as nothing.” a man.— A male;” (Geber) the strongest