Neither let the light shine upon it.

Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it;
Let a cloud dwell upon it;

Let the blackness of the day terrify it.

As for that night, let darkness seize upon it;
Let it not be joined unto the days of the year,

Let it not come into the number of the months.
Lo, let that night be solitary,

Let no joyful voice come therein.

Let them curse it that curse the day,

Who are ready to raise up their mourning.

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark;
Let it look for light, but have none;

Because it shut me not up from the birth,
Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

Why died I not from the first,

Why did I not give up the ghost when I was born?
Why did the knees prevent me*?

Or why the breasts that I should suck?

For now should I have lain still and been quiet,

I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

With kings and counsellors of the earth,
Which built desolate places for themselves;
Or with princes that had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver.

There the wicked cease from troubling;

And there the weary be at rest.
There the prisoners rest together;

They hear not the voice of the oppressor.

The small and great are there;

And the servant is free from his master.

Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery,

And life unto the bitter in soul;

Which long for death, but it cometh not;

And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

Which rejoice exceedingly,

And are glad, when they can find the grave?

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
And whom God hath hedged in?

For my sighing cometh before I eat,

And my roarings are poured out like the waters.

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me,

And that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet, Yet trouble came.

* Come before me, to nurse and support me.

G

LESSON LXX.

ELIPHAZ'S REBUKE.

JOB iv. 1-8, 12—19; v. 17-27.

B.C. 1600.-The violence of Job's grief and lamentation made his friends find fault with him. They thought such an affliction could befall no man unless he had been guilty of some very evil deed.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?

Behold, thou hast instructed many,

And thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Thy words have upholden him that was falling,

And thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest ;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

Is not this thy fear, thy confidence,

Thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?
Or where were the righteous cut off?

Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity,
And sow wickedness, reap the same.

Now a thing was secretly brought to me,
And mine ear received a little thereof.
In thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falleth on men,
Fear came upon me, and trembling,
Which made all my bones to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face;

The hair of my flesh stood up:

It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof:

An image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard

a voice,

Shall mortal man be more just than God?

Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
Behold, he put no trust in his servants;

And his angels he charged with folly:

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay,

Whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth;

Therefore despise not thou the chastening* of the Almighty :
For he maketh sore, and bindeth up:

He woundeth, and his hands make whole.

He shall deliver thee in six troubles:

Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

In famine he shall redeem thee from death:

And in war from the power of the sword.

Thou shalt be hid from the scourget of the tongue :
Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh:

Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

For thou shalt be in league‡ with the stones of the field:
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle § shall be in peace;
And thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,
And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,

Like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
Lo this, we have searched it, so it is;
Hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

LESSON LXXI. ||

JOB'S PROPHECY.

JOB xix. 21-27; xxix. 11—16; xxxi. 35—40.

B.C. 1600.-It would take more understanding than those for whom these Readings are intended yet possess, to go through all the arguments of Fob and the three friends. Bildad and Zophar chimed in with Eliphaz in declaring that no one was perfect, and that trouble always followed sin; therefore that Fob must have sinned, or he would not be affiicted; while Job continued to declare that good men suffered as well as bad ones, and to assert his own innocence. He cries out :

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends;
For the hand of God hath touched me.
Why do ye persecute me as God,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Oh that my words were now written !
Oh that they were printed in a book!
+ Stroke as of a whip.
§ Dwelling-place, properly a tent.

* Correction.

↑ Agreement. Not for the little ones

That they were graven with an iron pen
And lead in the rock for ever!

For I know that my Redeemer liveth,

And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,

Yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ;

And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me :

Because I delivered the poor that cried,

And the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me :

And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me:

My judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

I was a father to the poor:

And the cause which I knew not I searched out.

Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me,
And that mine adversary had written a book.

Surely I would take it upon my shoulder,

And bind it as a crown to me.

I would declare unto him the number of my steps;

As a prince would I go near unto him.

If my land cry against me,

Or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,

Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley.

B.C. 1600.—The three friends, having failed to make out their view that Fob must have deserved his troubles, were silent; and a young man, who seems to have been a descendant of Abraham's

brother, Nahor (Job xxxii. 2; Gen. xxii. 21), stood forth, and upheld the majesty and mystery of God and His works, showing that He who sent the wonders of storm and wind might also well deal with man in a way that could not be understood, far less be questioned. While Elihu spoke, it is plain, from the latter part of his discourse, that a great storm was rising over the desert of Stony Arabia, and bursting over the spot where the desolate Fob sat. Out of that storm the Lord Himself spoke to Fob and his friends; but God did not forestall His revelation. He only taught the friends how the power, the beauty, and the mystery of His works of creation should teach them that His ways, like His works, are past understanding, and that all that they could do was to bow before Him in patient trust and faith.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Who is this that darkeneth counsel

By words without knowledge?

Gird up now thy loins like a man;

For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?

Or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?

Or who laid the corner stone thereof;

When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Or who shut up the sea with doors,

When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

When I made the cloud the garment thereof,

And thick darkness a swaddling-band for it.

And brake up for it my decreed place,

And set bars and doors,

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further:
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

*

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?

Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,

Which I have reserved against the time of trouble,

Against the day of battle and war?

Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters.

Or a way for the lightning of thunder ;

To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is ;

On the wilderness, wherein there is no man;

To satisfy the desolate and waste ground;

And to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
Hath the rain a father?