SECTION IX.

Bildad's Second Address.

Chap. xviii. Ver. 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuite, and said,

2. How long, O sages, must ye compose parables",

-Must ye give instructions, and we afterwards talk? Bildad, with this expression, as addressed to ancient sages, expresses at once his high estimation of the authority of those sayings which they had bequeathed to posterity, and his great indignation at the presumption of Job, in not implicitly receiving their instructions.

3. Why should we be esteemed as beasts?

Be reputed vile in your sight?

But, in fact, Job's contemptuous anger could only injure himself.

4. He preyeth upon himself in his anger.

For Job to oppose such well and universallyestablished authorities as they had quoted, he might as well think of expelling mankind from the earth, and moving the rocks from their places.

5. What, for thee shall the earth be deserted? And the rock be removed from its place?

The difficulty of this introduction of Bildad's speech is proclaimed by the great diversity of translations. I look for the meaning of 'p, not to sp, but to, secuit,' 'decidit,' 'decrevit.' Whence the Hebrew rï, · a leader,' ' a prince,' and the Arab, a decider, or judge, the Cadi.

Or, set in order words, or sayings.'

But hear again another of these ancient parables, to the very same effect.

6. Again: "The light of the wicked shall be put out, "And the flame of his fire shall blaze no more.

"Light is become darkness in his tent",

"And his lamp over him is put out.

That is, the lamp wont to be suspended over his head while he feasted; or, perhaps, we may render "his lamp which was for him"-hung out for him, to guide him in the direction of his home at night; in which case there is a connexion between these lines and the following:

7. His strong steps shall set him fast",

"And his counsel shall throw him down.

As a general observation, the strength which marks the progress of the wicked, and all his wisdom, shall but the sooner plunge him into ruin. Supposing a connexion, the wicked man, in the day of his appointed vengeance, is compared to the home-bound traveller, for whom his enemies are laying in wait. They have extinguished the lamp that should guide him to his tent; they have prepared a snare for him while he walks in darkness: the more sturdy be his advance, the sooner is he taken; the more, availing himself of his local knowledge, he consults respecting the right path to be taken, the surer his fall.

8. "For he plungeth into the net for his feet,

C

d

"And directeth his steps upon a snare:

Or, "light is withdrawn from his tent."

"The steps of his strength."

"Darteth, or plungeth by his feet into a pit-fall." GOOD.

Literally, "walketh himself."

9. "The wire will catch him by the heel, And the loop will hold him fast.

10. Concealed in the earth was its cord, "And its catch upon the path-way. 11. Alarms on every side affright him, "And burst forth at his feet d

The comparison is to a wild beast taken in the field; no sooner is he secured, than the shouts of men and dogs, who are laying in wait, are raised on a sudden, and they burst forth upon him. 12. The hungry hound' molests him,

"And destruction is arranged at his side.

13. "He devoureth the limbs of his body",

"The first-born of death devoureth his body.

The crowd of dogs and hunters, enclosing and hemming in their prey, press him on all sides; the dogs devour him. The first-born of death,' I should conceive, in this connexion, must signify, some voracious species of dog, leopard, or other animal used in hunting; the blood-hound, among us, might well deserve the epithet.

6

an, laqueus, lamina, metallum deductum, expansum et at tenuatum. "Springe." GOOD.

b

C

Dy, tendicula a constringendo consensit. J. D. Michaelis

tasma.'

с

เ

ba, consternatio, terror: quæ res stuporem facit, phan:

פצח and compare פצה see הפצרו d For

Literally, is his molestation, px, dolor, luctus, molestia SIM. LEX.

f"Exitium grave." SCHULTENS.

8 More correctly, perhaps, the veins and tendons of his skin or flesh. See Simon in 7.

As this relates to the judgment that overtakes the wicked man himself, what follows seems to relate to his family and his dwelling, which had formed his confidence.'

14. His confidence shall be rooted out from his tent,

"Desolation, like a king, shall march against it: 15."It shall dwell in his tent, which is no longer his;

"Brimstone shall be scattered over his habitation. 16. "Beneath, his root shall be burned up; “Above, his bough shall wither.

17. "His memory shall perish from the earth,

"And he shall have no name on its surface.

18." He shall be driven from light into darkness, "And chased out of the world.

19." He shall have neither son nor kinsman among his people,

"Nor any remnant in the places of his sojourning. 20. "At his day shall those that follow him be astonished,

"And those that precede him shall be seized with horror.

21.Ay, these are the dwellings of the wicked,

"And this the place of him that knew not El!"

At his judgment, all that knew him, his juniors and seniors, his inferiors and superiors, all who followed him, and all who preceded him in the paths of life, shall be struck with amazement and

"venustissime, pro ad instar regis."

bOr," from the land."

"On the face of the street."

horror, on beholding the ruins of his desolated habitation: they shall point it out as having belonged to one who fell a remarkable instance of the retri

butive justice of Providence. Bildad certainly

means to insinuate, that the case of Job, with respect to his sudden and overwhelming calamities, being so similar to that portrayed in the parable, he doubts not that they have fallen on a similar object of the just vengeance of the Almighty.

SECTION X.

Job's Reply.

Chap. xix. Ver. 1. THEN answered Job, and said: 2. How long will you grieve my soul,

And crush me to pieces with parables?

3. These ten times should you revile me,

You would not confound me, you would confirm me.

6

It is unkind, and to no purpose, thus to humble and depress me; you do not, by all your sayings' of the ancients, make me to mistrust myself in my judgment of the integrity of my character. You make me feel, on the contrary, more firm and strenuous in my defence. It was, indeed, this effect, produced on the mind of Job by the indiscriminating imputations of his friends, which, by a too natural consequence, led him to that bold justification