Job · Chapter 7

V. 1. Is there not-Job is here excusing what he cannot justify, his passionate longing for death. A time-Is there not a time limited by God, wherein man shall live in this sinful, and miserable world? And is it a crime in me, to desire that God would bring me to that joyful period? Our time on earth is limited and short, according to the narrow bounds of this earth. But heaven cannot be measured, nor the days of heaven numbered. Hireling-Whose time is short, being but a few years, or days, whose condition is full of toil and hardship.

Verse 1. Is there not an appointed time to man] The Hebrew, with its literal rendering, is as follows: xra yl[ vwnal abx alh halo tsaba leenosh aley arets, “Is there not a warfare to miserable man upon the earth?” And thus most of the versions have understood the words. The SEPTUAGINT: Poteron ouci peirathrion esti o biov anqrwpou epi thv ghv; “Is not the life of man a place of trial upon earth?” The VULGATE: Militia est vita hominis super terram, “The life of man is a warfare upon earth?” The CHALDEE is the same. N’y a-t-il pas comme un train de guerre ordonne aux mortels sur la terre? “Is there not a continual campaign ordained for mortals upon the earth?” FRENCH BIBLE. The GERMAN and DUTCH the same. COVERDALE: Is not the life off man upon earth a very batayle? CARMARDEN, Rouen, 1566: Hath man any certayne tyme upon earth? SYRIAC and ARABIC: “Now, man has time upon the earth.” Non e egli il tempo determinato a l’huomo sopra la terra?” “Is there not a determined time to man upon the earth?” BIB. ITAL., 1562. All these are nearer to the true sense than ours; and of a bad translation, worse use has been made by many theologians. I believe the simple sentiment which the writer wished to convey is this: Human life is a state of probation; and every day and place is a time and place of exercise, to train us up for eternal life. Here is the exercise, and here the warfare: we are enlisted in the bands of the Church militant, and must accomplish our time of service, and be honourably dismissed from the warfare, having conquered through the blood of the Lamb; and then receive the reward of the heavenly inheritance.

Verse 1. Is there not, &c. — Job is here excusing what he cannot justify, his passionate longing for death. An appointed time for man upon earth — Hebrews abx, tzaba, a warfare; or, time of warfare. The Targum is, Chela, militia. The Vulgate, militia est vita hominis, The life of man is a warfare. The heathen had the same thoughts of life: o de biov polemov, M. Anton. 50. 2. sec. 17. Comp. Job 14:14. All the days, tzebai, of my appointed time; militiæ meæ, of my warfare. But our own translation appears to be as agreeable to the Hebrew, and to contain as good sense, as any other. Job seems to mean, Is there not a short time, limited by God, wherein man shall live in this sinful and miserable world; that afterward he may live in a more holy and happy place and state? And is it a crime in me to desire that God would bring me to that joyful period? Our time on earth is limited and short, according to the narrow bounds of this earth. But heaven cannot be measured, nor the days of heaven numbered. Reader, consider this! Are not his days also like the days of a hireling? — Whose time is short, being but a few years or days, and whose condition is full of toil and hardship.

Verse 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? abx alh hela zaba, Nonne militia est homini super terra, et sicut dies mercenarii dies ejus? “Is not the life of man a warfare upon the earth; and his days as a mercenary;” hired for the campaign? N’ y a-t-il pas un train de guerre ordonne aux mortels sur la terre? Is there not a train of warfare ordained to mortals on the earth? Then Job wisely contends, that as afflictions are the common lot of man, his friends ought not tacitly to impute his unprecedented calamities to secret crimes.

1. An appointed time — abx, (Job 14:14; Isaiah 40:2,) a warfare. The word is properly used of military service, and is rendered by the Septuagint peirathrion, “a state of trial.” Life means service — the hard service of a soldier. “Life,” says Zoroaster, “is the post of man. It is forbidden to quit a post without the permission of the commander.” (Maxims.) “The fact that Job, in verse 1, brings his suffering into connexion with the misery of the whole race, indicates progress in relation to chapter iii, where, predominantly at least, he limited himself to the representation of his individual condition. By this advance, the question concerning God’s righteousness and love receives a much more forcible significance. The question is no longer about a solitary exception, which may have a secret personal reason for its existence. Job now stands forth as representative of the whole of suffering, oppressed humanity, arraigning God because of his injustice.” — Hengstenberg.

V. 2. Shadow-That is, the sun-set, the time allotted for his rest.

Verse 2. Earnestly desireth the shadow] As a man who labours hard in the heat of the day earnestly desires to get under a shade, or wishes for the long evening shadows, that he may rest from his labour, get his day’s wages, retire to his food, and then go to rest. Night is probably what is meant by the shadow; as in VIRGIL, Æn. iv., ver. 7: Humentemque Aurora polo dimoverat UMBRAM. “The morning had removed the humid shadow, i.e., night, from the world.” Where SERVIUS justly observes: Nihil interest, utrum UMBRAM an NOCTEM dicat: NOX enim UMBRA terræ est, “It makes no difference whether he says shadow or night; for night is the shadow of the earth.”

Verse 2. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow — Of the evening, the sun-set, or the night, the time allotted for his rest and repose. For man goeth forth to his labour until the evening, <19A423>Psalm 104:23. So, why may not I also desire the time of my rest? The Hebrew, however, lx ãavy, jishap tzel, is more literally rendered, gapeth, or panteth after the shade. And the meaning probably is, As a servant, labouring in the heat of the sun, earnestly desires a cool, refreshing shade. And as a hireling — Hebrews rykc, sacir, properly, a servant hired for a certain time, whereas, the preceding word, db[, gnebed, signifies a servant, whose time of service is not fixed or limited: looketh for the reward of his work — As the Hebrews l[p, pognal, according to Buxtorf, signifies both work, and, by a metonymy, the wages of work, and is accordingly translated wages, (Leviticus 19:13,) the words in the Italic character (namely, the reward of) did not need to be added here in the text, but the version might properly have been, As a hireling looketh, or, as Heath renders it, earnestly longeth for his wages.

2. Earnestly desireth the shadow — Rather, longs for, ãav, a word that in several oriental languages expresses strongest desire. See chap. 5:5. Kitto is rather disposed to think that the shadow means protection against the fierce rays of the sun to which the servant (db[, slave) is exposed. Dr. A. Clarke more properly interprets it of the night, and cites Virgil: “The morning had removed the humid shadow from the world.” Servius observes, “It makes no difference whether he says shadow or night, for night is the shadow of the earth.” The most ancient artificial mode of marking the progress of the day was by the shadow caused by the sun, which, falling from a pillar upon some graduated surface, by its length served to denote the hour of the day. (2 Kings 20:11.) The people of the East to the present day measure time by the length of their own shadow. “A person wishing to leave his toil says, How long my shadow is coming.” — Roberts. His work — Wages. The word in the original l[p means both work and wages. As the two are closely identified in the Hebrew, so they seem to be in the thought before us. The hireling hopes for — “expects” — his wages; and shall man, the hireling of God, be of less consequence than the hireling of man? Shall he be “made to inherit” months of wretchedness and nights of trouble, and receive no compensation? Is there not here a reference to another life, where Job, too, should receive recompense? If not, the sense is incomplete — this second clause is superfluous; the first would have sufficed to introduce the comparison of verse 3.

V. 3. So-This so respects not so much the desire of an hired servant, as the ground of it, his hard toil and service. Possess-God, hath given me this as my lot and inheritance. Months-So he calls them rather than days, to note the tediousness of his affliction. Vanity-Empty and unsatisfying. Nights-He mentions nights, because that is the saddest time for sick and miserable persons; the darkness and solitude of the night being of themselves uncomfortable, and giving them more opportunity for solemn and sorrowful reflections.

Verse 3. So am I made to possess] But night is no relief to me, it is only a continuance of my anxiety and labour. I am like the hireling, I have my appointed labour for the day. I am like the soldier harassed by the enemy: I am obliged to be continually on the watch, always on the look out, with scarcely any rest.

Verse 3. So am I made to possess, &c. — This word, so, respects not so much the desire of a hired servant, as the cause of it, his hard toil and service. He means, God hath allotted me these painful sufferings, as he hath allotted to a hired servant hard labour. Months of vanity — Months empty and unsatisfying, or false and deceitful, not affording me the ease and rest which they promised me, and I expected. He terms them months, rather than days, to signify the tediousness of his affliction. And wearisome nights — He mentions nights, because that is the saddest time for sick and miserable persons; the darkness and solitude of the night being of themselves uncomfortable, and giving them more opportunity for solemn and sorrowful reflections.

3. Months of vanity — The misery, awv, (not “vanity.”) that he is made to inherit month after month, is the pivot of the comparison. As a slave suffers and desires rest, so does Job. The suffering of the former is for a day, followed by its inseparable sweet night of repose; but Job’s misery is for months, with the ever-recurring nights, not of repose, but of distress. Job frequently refers to the night as the season when his sufferings culminated. This leads to the poetical culmination in “nights” rather than in “months.” The Arabs count their time by nights rather than by days. Job’s sufferings had evidently been long protracted before the friends came upon the scene. Are appointed — They appoint, or number out. The agent, as in many other similar cases, Job leaves unmentioned. Compare Job 4:18, 19: “they crush:” 18:18. “They shall drive him from light to darkness.” Also Job 19:26; 34:20. Dr. Tayler Lewis argues, in loc., that the real or supposed agent is some fearful or repulsive being, whom Job on this account dreads to mention. The grammarians, on the other hand, lay down that such forms of the verb may be used indefinitely. See Nordheimer, ii, p. 46.

Verse 4. When I lie down] I have so little rest, that when I do lie down I long for the return of the light, that I may rise. Nothing can better depict the state of a man under continual afflictions, which afford him no respite, his days and his nights being spent in constant anguish, utterly unable to be in any one posture, so that he is continually changing his position in his bed, finding ease nowhere: thus, as himself expresses it, he is full of tossings.

4. When I lie down — “This is a fine touch. The longing for morn does not come, as to the Prometheus of AEschylus, after a night of suffering, but anticipates it. Job’s one thought, as he lies down hopeless of rest or respite, is, when will the light return, bringing with it, at least, more of consciousness and power to endure the agony.” — Canon Cook. The night be gone — ddm, is rendered by some, is long. Thus Dillmann, Hitzig, and Renan, “When shall I arise? and the night is prolonged.” Many others make middadh the construct state of a verbal noun, and read, “and the flight of the evening be” — evening being equivalent to night of the preceding verse. The accents favour this reading, which is substantially that of the Authorized Version. The use of the word evening heightens the beauty of the thought. If the evening twilight be so hard to bear in anticipation, what must the whole night be?

V. 5. Worms-Which were bred out of Job’s corrupted flesh and sores. Dust-The dust of the earth upon which he lay. Broken-By ulcers in all parts of it.

Verse 5. My flesh is clothed with worms] This is perhaps no figure, but is literally true: the miserably ulcerated state of his body, exposed to the open air, and in a state of great destitution, was favourable to those insects that sought such places in which to deposit their ova, which might have produced the animals in question. But the figure is too horrid to be farther illustrated.

Clods of dust] I believe all the commentators have here missed the sense. I suppose Job to allude to those incrustations of indurated or dried pus, which are formed on the tops of pustules in a state of decay: such as the scales which fall from the pustules of the smallpox, when the patient becomes convalescent. Or, if Job’s disease was the elephantiasis, it may refer to the furfuraceous scales which are continually falling off the body in that disorder. It is well known, that in this disease the skin becomes very rigid, so as to crack across, especially at the different joints, out of which fissures a loathsome ichor is continually exuding. To something like this the words may refer, My SKIN is BROKEN, and become LOATHSOME.

Verses 5, 6. My flesh is clothed with worms — Which were bred out of his corrupted flesh and sores, and which, it seems, covered him all over like a garment. And clods of dust — The dust of the earth on which he lay. My skin is broken — By ulcers breaking out in all parts of it. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle — Which passes in a moment from one side of the web to the other. So the time of my life hastens to a period; and therefore vain are those hopes which you would give me of a restoration to my former prosperity in this world. And are spent without hope — Of enjoying any good day here.

5. Worms — In the decaying sores, worms were engendered. “In cases of elephantiasis the body is covered with boils, in some of which maggots are bred, while others are covered over with a crust of dried corruption which often breaks out again.” — Justin. Clod of dust — Crusts of earth. Earth-coloured crust, or scabs of hardened sores, cover up the wholebody like a garment. (Dillmann.) Is broken — My skin heals and breaks open again. (Dillmann, Hitzig.) The meaning of [gr accords, according to Furst, with our Authorized Version, but Gesenius and others render it as above, heals; literally, “closes together.” In this disease the skin comes together and heals, and then breaks forth again and runs with pus. The incidental remarks of Job here and there in his speeches quite satisfactorily determine his disease to be the elephantiasis.

V. 6. Swifter-The time of my life hastens to a period. Shuttle-Which passes in a moment from one end of the web to the other. Hope-Of enjoying any good day here.

Verse 6. Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle] The word gra areg signifies rather the weaver than his shuttle. And it has been doubted whether any such instrument were in use in the days of Job. Dr. Russell, in his account of Aleppo, shows that though they wove many kinds of curious cloth, yet no shuttle was used, as they conducted every thread of the woof by their fingers. That some such instrument as the shuttle was in use from time immemorial, there can be no doubt: and it is certain that such an instrument must have been in the view of Job, without which the figure would lose its expression and force. In almost every nation the whole of human existence has been compared to a web; and the principle of life, through the continual succession of moments, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, to a thread woven through that web. Hence arose the fable of the Parcæ or Fates, called also the Destinies or Fatal Sisters. They were the daughters of Erebus and Nox, darkness and night; and were three in number, and named Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Clotho held the distaff; Lachesis spun off the thread; and Atropos cut it off with her scissors, when it was determined that life should end. Job represents the thread of his life as being spun out with great rapidity and tenuity, and about to be cut off. And are spent without hope.] Expectation of future good was at an end; hope of the alleviation of his miseries no longer existed. The hope of future good is the balm of life: where that is not, there is despair; where despair is, there is hell. The fable above mentioned is referred to by Virgil, Ecl. iv., ver. 46, but is there applied to time:—

Talia Secla, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis

Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcæ.

“The FATES, when they this happy thread have spun

Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it smoothly run.”

DRYDEN.

Isaiah uses the same figure, Isaiah 38:12:—

My life is cut off, as by the weaver:

He will sever me from the loom.

In the course of the day thou wilt finish my web.

LOWTH.

Coverdale translates thus: My dayes passe over more spedely then a weaver can weave out his webbe and are gone or I am awarre.

A fine example of this figure is found in the Teemour Nameh, which I shall give in Mr. Good’s translation:—

“Praise be to God, who hath woven the web of human affairs in the loom of his will and of his wisdom, and hath made waves of times and of seasons to flow from the fountain of his providence into the ocean of his power.” The simile is fine, and elegantly expressed.

Verses 5, 6. My flesh is clothed with worms — Which were bred out of his corrupted flesh and sores, and which, it seems, covered him all over like a garment. And clods of dust — The dust of the earth on which he lay. My skin is broken — By ulcers breaking out in all parts of it. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle — Which passes in a moment from one side of the web to the other. So the time of my life hastens to a period; and therefore vain are those hopes which you would give me of a restoration to my former prosperity in this world. And are spent without hope — Of enjoying any good day here.

Ver. 6. A weaver’s shuttle which flies swiftly, and the shoots are not counted. In like manner, our fugitive moments pass away, and little noticed, till the webb of life is cut out of the loom. Weaving is an invention of the greatest antiquity, and silks must have been wove with a shuttle; in this art the Hindoos still surpass the Europeans.

6. A weaver’s shuttle — The art of weaving reaches back to the dawn of civilization. It was carried to a high state of proficiency among the Egyptians, as is seen in the specimens of mummy clothing which still remain, and which are pronounced to be not inferior to the finest cambrics of modern times. (Wilkinson.) Hezekiah likened the cutting off of his life to a weaver’s cutting off of his thread. Thus in Arabsha’s life of Taimur we read: “Verily the thread of life is joined to that which cuts it: and the texture of existence is knitted together with death.” An acute writer has said, “Perhaps no angelic mind has quickness of thought enough to fix on a moment as present.”

b. Job turns supplicatingly to God that he may remember him, the incumbent of so miserable an estate, lest the opportunity to help should soon and forever evanish, 7-11.

V. 7. O-He turns his speech to God. Perhaps observing, that his friends grew weary of hearing it. If men will not hear us, God will: if men cannot help us, he can: for his arm is not shortened, neither is his ear heavy.

Verse 7. My life is wind] Mr. Good translates, “O remember that, if my life pass away, mine eye shall turn no more to scenes of goodness;” which he paraphrases thus: “O remember that, if my life pass away, never more shall I witness those scenes of Divine favour, never more adore thee for those proofs of unmerited mercy, which till now have been so perpetually bestowed on me.” I think the common translation gives a very good sense.

Verses 7, 8. O remember — He turns his speech to God; perhaps observing that his friends grew weary of hearing it. If men will not hear us, God will: if men cannot help us, he can: for his arm is not shortened, neither is his ear heavy. The eye, &c., shall see me no more — In this mortal state: I shall never return to this life again. Thine eyes are upon me, and I am not — If thou cast one angry look upon me, I am not; that is, I am a dead man: or, when thine eyes shall be upon me, that is, when thou shalt look for me to do me good, thou wilt find that I am not, that I am dead and gone, and incapable of enjoying that bounty and goodness which thou givest to men in this world.

7. No more see good — Literally, not return to see good; that is, in this world. “To see” is used in the sense of enjoy.

V. 8. No more-In this mortal state: I shall never return to this life again. Am not-If thou cast one angry look upon me, I am not; thou canst look me into eternity.

Verse 8. Shall see me no more] If I die in my present state, with all this load of undeserved odium which is cast upon me by my friends, I shall never have an opportunity of vindicating my character, and regaining the good opinion of mankind.

Thine eyes are upon one, and I am not.] Thou canst look me into nothing. Or, Let thine eye be upon me as judged to death, and I shall immediately cease to live among men.

Verses 7, 8. O remember — He turns his speech to God; perhaps observing that his friends grew weary of hearing it. If men will not hear us, God will: if men cannot help us, he can: for his arm is not shortened, neither is his ear heavy. The eye, &c., shall see me no more — In this mortal state: I shall never return to this life again. Thine eyes are upon me, and I am not — If thou cast one angry look upon me, I am not; that is, I am a dead man: or, when thine eyes shall be upon me, that is, when thou shalt look for me to do me good, thou wilt find that I am not, that I am dead and gone, and incapable of enjoying that bounty and goodness which thou givest to men in this world.

8. And I am not — Compare Revelation 20:11. When God maketh requisition for man, he at once ceases to be. God looks upon him and he is not.

A drop that trembles on the lotus leaf;

Such is this life, so soon dispelled, so brief.

— Buddhistic Hymn, by Sankara.

V. 9. No more-Never until the general resurrection. When we see a cloud which looked great, as if it would eclipse the sun, of a sudden dispersed and disappearing, say, Just such a thing is the life of man, a vapour that appears for a while and then vanisheth away.

Verse 9. As the cloud is consumed] As the cloud is dissipated, so is the breath of those that go down to the grave. As that cloud shall never return, so shall it be with the dead; they return no more to sojourn with the living. See on the following verses.

Verses 9, 10. As the cloud is consumed — Being dissolved by the heat of the sun. And vanisheth away — Never to return again. So he that goeth down, &c., shall come up no more — Never until the general resurrection. When you see a cloud, which looked great, as if it would eclipse the sun, of a sudden dispersed and disappearing, say, Just such a thing is the life of man, a vapour that appears for a while and then vanisheth away. He shall return no more to his house — He shall no more be seen and known in his former habitation. It concerns us to secure a better place when we die: for this will own us no more.

9. The grave — lwav, sheol. See Excursus III, at close of chapter.

V. 10. Any more-He shall no more be seen and known in his former habitation. It concerns us to secure a better place when we die: for this will own us no more.

Verse 10. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.] He does not mean that he shall be annihilated but that he shall never more become an inhabitant of the earth. The word lwav, which we properly enough translate grave, here signifies also the state of the dead, hades, and sometimes any deep pit, or even hell itself.

Verses 9, 10. As the cloud is consumed — Being dissolved by the heat of the sun. And vanisheth away — Never to return again. So he that goeth down, &c., shall come up no more — Never until the general resurrection. When you see a cloud, which looked great, as if it would eclipse the sun, of a sudden dispersed and disappearing, say, Just such a thing is the life of man, a vapour that appears for a while and then vanisheth away. He shall return no more to his house — He shall no more be seen and known in his former habitation. It concerns us to secure a better place when we die: for this will own us no more.

10. No more to his house — According to the “Book of the Dead,” the Egyptians believed that the man who had successfully undergone the ordeal in Hades could return whenever he pleased to the house he had formerly occupied. Know him — Among the people of the East, inanimate objects are often spoken of as if they knew their owners. A man who has sold his field says, “that will not know me any more.” — ROBERTS’ Scripture Illustrations.

V. 11. Therefore-Since my life is so vain and short, and when once lost, without all hopes of recovery. I will plead with God for pity before I die; I will not smother my anguish within my breast, but will ease myself by pouring out my complaints.

Verse 11. Therefore I will not refrain] All is hopeless; I will therefore indulge myself in complaining.

Verse 11. Therefore I will not refrain, &c. — Since my life is so vain and short, and, when once lost, without all hopes of recovery. I will plead with God for pity before I die; I will not smother my anguish within my breast, but will ease myself by pouring out my complaints.

11. Therefore I — yna µg: also I. Compare Psalms 52:5Psalm 52:5, “also God.” I will have my turn now. The abrupt expression quivers with a sense of wrong — a feeling that God’s treatment of the speaker is founded in unreason. Job’s utter suspense of faith could not be more painfully declared than by this voluntary breaking down of all barriers. The pent-up emotions of despair are now free to roll forth as a flood.

Fifth long strophe — AN ARRAIGNMENT OF GOD, 12-21.

The preceding thoughts upon the vanity of life, and its irretrievable destruction by death, forever sundering man from home and its endearments, arouse Job to violent expostulations and reproaches against God. As God deals so hard with man, and with himself in particular, he declares he will no longer restrain his mouth.

Strophe a. “The first conceivable cause of Job’s troubles — he might be a menace to heaven.” — Davidson and Hitzig. God treats him as if he were a monstrous adversary; whereas, he is at best an insignificant being, whose days are a breath. He asks not for life, but relief, 12-16.

V. 12. A sea-Am I as fierce and unruly as the sea, which, if thou didst not set bounds to it, would overwhelm the earth? Or, am I a vast and ungovernable sea-monster? Which thou must restrain by thy powerful providence. That, &c.-That thou shouldest guard and restrain me with such heavy and unexampled miseries? We are apt in affliction to complain of God, as if he laid more upon us than there is occasion for: whereas we are never in heaviness, but when there is need, nor more than there is need.

Verse 12. Amos I a sea, or a whale] “Amos I condemned as the Egyptians were who were drowned in the Red Sea? or am I as Pharaoh, who was drowned in it in his sins, that thou settest a keeper over me?” Targum. Amos I as dangerous as the sea, that I should be encompassed about with barriers, lest I should hurt mankind? Amos I like an ungovernable wild beast or dragon, that I must be put under locks and bars? I think our own version less exceptionable than any other hitherto given of this verse. The meaning is sufficiently plain. Job was hedged about and shut in with insuperable difficulties of various kinds; he was entangled as a wild beast in a net; the more he struggled, the more he lost his strength, and the less probability there was of his being extricated from his present situation. The sea is shut in with barriers, over which it cannot pass; for God has “placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it,” Jeremiah 5:22. “For thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth;” <19A409>Psalm 104:9. “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 farther: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed;” Job 38:8.

Here then is Job’s allusion: the bounds, doors, garment, swaddling bands, decreed place, and bars, are the watchers or keepers which God has set to prevent the sea from overflowing the earth; so Job’s afflictions and distresses were the bounds and bars which God had apparently set to prevent him from injuring his fellow creatures. At least Job, in his complaint, so takes it. Amos I like the sea, which thou hast imprisoned within bounds, ready to overwhelm and destroy the country? or am I like a dragon, which must be cooped up in the same way, that it may not have the power to kill and destroy? Surely in my prosperity I gave no evidence of such a disposition; therefore should not be treated as a man dangerous to society. In this Job shows that he will not refrain his mouth.

Verse 12. Am I a sea — Am I as fierce and unruly as the sea, which, if thou didst not set bounds to it, would overwhelm the earth? Or a whale? — Am I a vast and ungovernable sea-monster? that thou settest a watch over me? — That thou must restrain me by thy powerful providence; must shut me up and confine me under such heavy, unexampled, and insupportable sufferings, as these creatures are confined by the shore? “To set a watch over a whale,” says Dr. Dodd, “is certainly a very improper and absurd idea. Hence Houbigant, by a very slight alteration, reads it, Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou raisest a tempest against me? an idea which very well suits with that storm of troubles, wherewith Job was nearly overwhelmed.” We are apt in affliction to complain of God, as if he laid more upon us than there is occasion for: whereas we are never in heaviness but when there is need, nor more than there is need.

Ver. 12. Am I a sea, or a whale. ˆynt tannin, a dragon, a sea-serpent, as Amos 9:3, or a whale. The sense seems to be, Am I tumultuous like the swelling waves of the sea, or destructive like a monster that ranges in the sea, that thou settest a watch over me, and bindest me down with the chains of affliction; or sendest a harpooner against me? So in ver. 19, he asks a little repose that he might swallow his spittle.

12. Am I a sea — God sets bounds to the sea, and may thus be said to watch over it. The sea was fancied by the Hebrew poet to be in a state of rebellion, and as calling for divine restraint Jeremiah 31:35, etc. Job is not conscious of a similar revolt against the Divine Majesty, and hence he remonstrates against being treated like some wild “monster,” — a term that Virgil applies to the ocean. — AEneid, 5:849. Some suppose Job refers to the river Nile, which Isaiah (Isaiah 19:5) calls a sea; while Homer calls it wkwanov, the ocean. The monster, then, would be the crocodile, against which men set guards. The monster (“whale”) Job speaks of bears a name (ˆynt, Tannin) similar to that in the Egyptian ritual tanem, which designated a horrible serpent, the enemy of light and life. Bunsen gives the snake as one of the hieroglyphic signs for the letter “T.” — Egypt’s Place, etc., 1:568. Tiamat appears in the Assyrian documents as the name of the dragon mistress at Chaos, answering to Thalatth in the fragments of Berosus. — SMITH’S Chaldean Account, etc., pages 14, 99.

Notwithstanding, it is more natural to suppose that Job refers to the sea, with its sublime restlessness, ever chafing against its shores. Such a figure would naturally suggest itself to one “full of tossings to and fro.” Verse 4. Whale — Tannin. Sea monster. Species not defined. See above. Watch — A bold conception. The pains and sorrows with which God visits man are heaven’s watch over him.

Verses 13, 14. My couch shall ease my complaint — By giving me sweet and quiet sleep, which may take off my sense of pain for that time. Then thou scarest me with dreams — With sad and frightful dreams. And terrifiest me with visions — With horrid apparitions; so that I am afraid to go to sleep, and my remedy proves as bad as my disease. This contributed no little to render the night so unwelcome and wearisome to him. How easily can God, when he pleases, meet us with terror there where we promised ourselves ease and repose. Nay, he can make us a terror to ourselves; and, as we have often contracted guilt, by the rovings of an unsanctified fancy, he can likewise, by the power of our imagination, create us a great deal of grief, and so make that our punishment which has often been our sin. Job’s dreams might probably arise, in part, from his distemper, but, no doubt, Satan also had a hand in them. We have reason to pray, that our dreams may neither defile nor disquiet us; neither tempt us to sin, nor torment us with fear; that he who keeps Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, would keep us when we slumber and sleep. And we ought to bless God if we lie down and our sleep is sweet, and we are not thus scared.

13. My bed — The bed (cr[) was a canopied couch; in Amos 3:12; 6:4, the synonym of luxury, while the couch, bkvm, was the ordinary term for bed.

Verse 14. Thou sparest me with dreams] There is no doubt that Satan was permitted to haunt his imagination with dreadful dreams and terrific appearances; so that, as soon as he fell asleep, he was suddenly roused and alarmed by those appalling images. He needed rest by sleep, but was afraid to close his eyes because of the horrid images which were presented to his imagination. Could there be a state more deplorable than this?

Verses 13, 14. My couch shall ease my complaint — By giving me sweet and quiet sleep, which may take off my sense of pain for that time. Then thou scarest me with dreams — With sad and frightful dreams. And terrifiest me with visions — With horrid apparitions; so that I am afraid to go to sleep, and my remedy proves as bad as my disease. This contributed no little to render the night so unwelcome and wearisome to him. How easily can God, when he pleases, meet us with terror there where we promised ourselves ease and repose. Nay, he can make us a terror to ourselves; and, as we have often contracted guilt, by the rovings of an unsanctified fancy, he can likewise, by the power of our imagination, create us a great deal of grief, and so make that our punishment which has often been our sin. Job’s dreams might probably arise, in part, from his distemper, but, no doubt, Satan also had a hand in them. We have reason to pray, that our dreams may neither defile nor disquiet us; neither tempt us to sin, nor torment us with fear; that he who keeps Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, would keep us when we slumber and sleep. And we ought to bless God if we lie down and our sleep is sweet, and we are not thus scared.

14. Dreams — According to Avicenna, those afflicted with elephantiasis suffer from frequent melancholy dreams.

Verse 15. Chooseth strangling] It is very likely that he felt, in those interrupted and dismal slumbers, an oppression and difficulty of breathing something like the incubus or nightmare; and, distressing as this was, he would prefer death by this means to any longer life in such miseries.

Verse 15. So that my soul chooseth strangling — The most violent death, so it be but certain and sudden, rather than such a wretched life. Hebrews ytwmx[m, megnatsmothai, rather than my bones — That is, than my body, the skin of which was everywhere broken, and the flesh almost consumed, so that little remained but bones.

15. Strangling — Difficulty of swallowing is one of the symptoms of elephantiasis, (Bridel,) and suffocation is its usual end. (Delitzsch.) It often becomes necessary to open the jugular vein to relieve the hoarseness and the tendency to suffocation. (Avicenna.) Life — Literally, my bones. So emaciated was he that he calls his body but mere bones. Schlottmann and Umbreit render ˆm “than,” from, and read from my bones, and attribute to Job the thought of suicide. But there is no authority for using “bones” in the sense of hands. Umbreit’s admission “that the sufferer is represented as strangling himself in agonizing dreams,” is fatal to his theory. “There is fearful irony,” says Davidson, “in the comparison of this skeleton, impotent and helpless, his very weakness a terror to himself and his on-lookers, to the great heaven-assaulting ocean, lifting itself up in the consciousness of infinite power, or to some dragon of the prime, in which the whole energy of creation in its youth lay compressed.”

Verse 16. I loathe it; I would not live alway] Life, in such circumstances, is hateful to me; and though I wish for long life, yet if length of days were offered to me with the sufferings which I now undergo, I would despise the offer and spurn the boon.

Mr. Good is not satisfied with our common version, and has adopted the following, which in his notes he endeavours to illustrate and defend: Ver. 15. So that my soul coveteth suffocation,

And death in comparison with my suffering.

Ver. 16. No longer would I live! O, release me!

How are my days vanity!

Verse 16. I loath it — To wit, my life, last mentioned. I would not live alway — In this world, if I might, no not in prosperity; for even such a life is but vanity; much less in this extremity of misery. Let me alone — That is, withdraw thy hand from me, either, 1, Thy supporting hand, which preserves my life, and suffer me to die: or, rather, 2, Thy correcting hand, as this phrase signifies, verse 19. For my days are vanity — My life is in itself, and in its best estate, a vain, unsatisfying, uncertain thing, empty of solid comfort, and exposed to real griefs, and therefore I would not be for ever tied to it. And it is a decaying and perishing thing, and will, of itself, quickly vanish and depart, and does not need to be forced from me by such exquisite torments.

16. I loathe it — ytsam. Some (Conant and Renan) would render it “waste away,” “dissolve,” 2 Corinthians 5:1: its more ordinary meaning, to “loathe,” despise, is better here. Thus Delitzsch, etc. I would not live alway — Sir Thomas Browne felicitated himself that “though it be in the power of the weakest arm to take away life, it is not in the strongest to deprive us of death.” — Works, 2:389. Plotinus, the Neo-Platonist, thanked God that his soul was not tied to an immortal body. Compare the hymn of Muhlenberg on this text with the pessimism of Schopenhauer. — See LIDDON, Elements of Religion, p. 132. Let me alone — Cease from me. As if he would say, Man’s life depends upon the presence, or the conscious putting forth, of power upon the part of God. If he withdraw that presence, or cease that activity, man perishes. There is no other way to account for life; that mysterious power which upholds the upright elaborated matter, a human body. How closely does the expression “cease from me” bring the living man into relationship to God. Comp. Psalms 104:29, 30. Vanity — lbh, a breath; the name Abel bore.

b. The other conceivable cause of Job’s sufferings — SIN. (Davidson.) Sorrowing man is too small an object for God’s disciplinary care, or (as Hitzig suggests) his hostile vigilance over him. Job questions whether sin be the reason (whether this solves the mystery) that God should make MAN the object of his painful visitations. Ewald well remarks that Job, for the first time, admits that sin may possibly be the hidden cause of his sorrows. 17-21.

V. 17. What, &c.-What is there in that poor, mean, creature called man, miserable man, as this word signifies, which can induce thee to take any notice of him, or to make such account of him? Man is not worthy of thy favour, and he is below thy anger; that thou shouldest concern thyself so much about him, as one near and dear to thee?

Verse. 17. What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?] Two different ideas have been drawn from these words:—

1. Man is not worth thy notice; why therefore dost thou contend with him?

2. How astonishing is thy kindness that thou shouldest fix thy heart—thy strongest affections, on such a poor, base, vile, impotent creature as man, (vwna enosh,) that thou shouldest so highly exalt him beyond all other creatures, and mark him with the most particular notice of thy providence and grace!

The paraphrase of Calmet is as follows: “Does man, such as he at present is, merit thy attention! What is man that God should make it his business to examine, try, prove, and afflict him? Is it not doing him too much honour to think thus seriously about him? O Lord! I am not worthy that thou shouldest concern thyself about me!”

Verse 17. What is man — Enosh, lapsed, fallen man; that thou shouldest magnify him? — What is there in that poor, mean creature called man, miserable man, which can induce thee to take any notice of him, or to make such account of him? Man is not worthy of thy favour, and he is below thy anger. It is too great a condescension in thee, and too great an honour done to man, that thou shouldst contend with him, and draw forth all thy forces against him, as if he were a fit match for thee. Therefore do not, O Lord, thus dishonour thyself or magnify me; and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him — Shouldst concern thyself so much about him, as though he were a creature of great dignity and worth, or were near and dear to thee.

17. Man… magnify him — Hirtzel is hardly justified in thinking that this verse is spoken in bitter irony. “Why shouldest thou break a fly upon a wheel?” — Wordsworth. The Psalmist subsequently enlarges upon the thought of the text, Psalms 8:3Psalm 8:3-5. His sublime conception, What is man that God should honour him and visit him (dqp, as here) with blessings, is no more sublime than this of Job, that God should also think of man and unremittingly try him, even by making him the mark (verse 20) at which, like an archer, he shoots his arrows. In the one case man is dwarfed in the comparison with the wonder-working of God in the field of creation — here, in the comparison with his wonder-doing within the more wonderful scheme of Providence.

V. 18. And try, &c.-What is man that vain, foolish creature, that thou shouldest magnify or regard, or visit him, (with thy mercy and blessings, that thou shouldest so far honour and regard him, as by thy visitation to preserve his spirit, or hold his soul in life) and try him, which God doth not only by afflictions, but also by prosperity and both inward and outward blessings? That thou shouldst observe his motions every moment, as in care for him, and jealous over him?

Verse 18. And that thou shouldest visit him — Namely, punish or chastise him, as the word visiting is often used; every morning — That is, every day; the word morning, which is the beginning of the day, being put, by a synecdoche, for the whole day, as the evening (verse 4) is put for the whole night; and try him every moment — That is, afflict him, which is often called trying, because it does indeed try a man’s faith, and patience, and perseverance. But this and the former verse may possibly be understood of mercies as well as afflictions. Having declared his loathing of life, and his passionate desire of death, and urged it with this consideration, that the days of his life were mere vanity; he may be considered as pursuing his argument with this expostulation, What is man, that vain, foolish creature, that thou shouldest magnify, or regard, or visit him with thy mercy and blessings; that thou shouldest so far honour and regard him, as by thy visitation to preserve his spirit, or hold his soul in life; and try him, which God doth, not only by his afflictions, but also by prosperity, and both inward and outward blessings? That thou shouldest observe his motions every moment, as in care for him, and jealous over him?

18. Visit him — How noble must that being be whom God deigns to visit every morning, and who is worthy of being unremittingly tried and tested. It is as if Job would grandly say, In the unceasing trial for eternity, God comes down each morning to mark the progress of the work; the patience elicited from sorrow; the faith, which is man’s strength, developed through temptation; and the ripeness of love that binds the soul to God. Cocceius thinks the idea is taken from a shepherd who inspects his flocks every morning in order to see if they are all there.

V. 19. How long-How long will it be ere thou withdraw thy afflicting hand? Swallow-That I may have a breathing time: a proverbial expression.

Verse 19. Till I swallow down my spittle?] This is a proverbial expression, and exists among the Arabs to the present day; the very language being nearly the same. It signifies the same as, Let me draw my breath; give me a moment’s space; let me have even the twinkling of an eye. I am urged by my sufferings to continue my complaint; but my strength is exhausted, my mouth dry with speaking. Suspend my sufferings even for so short a space as is necessary to swallow my spittle, that my parched tongue may be moistened, so that I may renew my complaint.

Verse 19. How long wilt thou not depart from me — How long will it be ere thou withdraw thy afflicting hand from me? The Hebrew is literally, How long wilt thou not take thine eyes off me? “This,” says Dodd, “is a metaphor from combatants, who never take their eyes from off their antagonists. The figure is preserved in the next sentence, which represents a combatant seized by his adversary in such a manner as to prevent his swallowing his spittle or fetching his breath.” Till I swallow my spittle? — For a little while: or, that I may have a breathing time: an Arabic proverb at present in use. See Schultens.

19. Swallow down my spittle — A proverbial expression for the briefest interval. Just as we would say, “Let me draw my breath;” or, “In the twinkling of an eye.” Camus explains it, “Give me only time enough to swallow my spittle.” A witty retort, cited by Schultens from the Arabic, (Telebius,) will help to illustrate: “Suffer me,” said one, “to swallow down my spittle.” To this his friend replied, “You may, if you please, swallow down even Tigris and Euphrates.”

V. 20. Sinned-Although I am free from those crying sins, for which my friends suppose thou hast sent this judgment upon me, yet, I freely confess I am a sinner, and therefore obnoxious to thy justice. What, &c.-To satisfy thy justice, or regain thy favour? Who dost know and diligently observe all mens inward motions, and outward actions; and therefore, if thou shalt be severe to mark mine iniquities, I have not what to say or do unto thee. My case is singular, none is shot at as I am.

Verse 20. I have sinned; what shall I do] Dr. Kennicott contends that these words are spoken to Eliphaz, and not to GOD, and would paraphrase them thus: “You say I must have been a sinner. What then? I have not sinned against thee, O thou spy upon mankind! Why hast thou set up me as a butt or mark to shoot at? Why am I become a burden unto thee? Why not rather overlook my transgression, and pass by mine iniquity? I am now sinking to the dust! To-morrow, perhaps, I shall be sought in vain!” See his vindication of Job at the end of these notes on this book. Others consider the address as made to God. Taken in this light, the sense is plain enough. Those who suppose that the address is made to GOD, translate the 20th verse {Job 7:20} thus: “Be it that I have sinned, what injury can I do unto thee, O thou Observer of man? Why hast thou set me up as a mark for thee, and why am I made a burden to thee?” The Septuagint is thus: Ei egw hmarton, ti dunhsomai praxai, o epistamenov ton noun twn anqrwpwn; If I have sinned, what can I do, O thou who knowest the mind of men? Thou knowest that it is impossible for me to make any restitution. I cannot blot out my offenses; but whether I have sinned so as to bring all these calamities upon me, thou knowest, who searchest the hearts of men.

Verse 20. I have sinned — Although I am free from those crying sins for which my friends suppose thou hast sent this uncommon judgment upon me; yet I freely confess that I am a sinner, and therefore obnoxious to thy justice. And what shall I do unto thee? — To satisfy thy justice, or regain thy favour. I can do nothing to purchase or deserve it, and therefore implore thy mercy to pardon my sins; O thou Preserver of men — O thou, who, as thou wast the Creator of man, delightest to be, and to be called, the Preserver and Saviour of men; and who waitest to be kind and gracious to men, from day to day: do not deal with me in a way contrary to thy own nature and name, and to the manner of thy dealing with all the rest of mankind. As Job had expressed himself before as if he thought he was treated with severity, Schultens chooses to render rxn, notzer, observer, rather than preserver. This indeed seems to be more agreeable to the context, which intimates that the eye of God was upon Job to observe and watch him as an offender; and this construction may be justified from Jeremiah 4:16, where the same word, in the plural number, is rendered watchers. According to this translation the meaning is, O thou observer of men, who dost exactly know and diligently observe all men’s inward motions and outward actions; if thou shalt be severe to mark mine iniquities, as thou seemest to be, I have not what to say or do unto thee. Why hast thou set me as a mark, &c. — Into which thou wilt shoot all the arrows of thy indignation? So that I am a burden to myself — I am weary of myself and of my life, being no way able to resist or endure the strokes of so potent an adversary.

20. I have sinned — “If I have sinned, what shall I be able to do,” etc. — Septuagint. Many regard it as hypothetical, thus: Have I sinned? what do I unto thee, (in what way can it affect thee,) thou observer (dxn) of men? as if he referred to the sin to which Eliphaz seems to allude. Compare Job 35:6. The English version is a literal rendering of the original. The context, however, demands a conditional reading: Be it that I have sinned, what reparation or satisfaction can I make unto thee? “If I have deserved thy wrath, it is useless for thee to pour it forth on me.” — Hitzig. There is no question in Job’s mind as to his having been a sinner. The question at issue is one of specific sin. Sin belongs to man as man. The cry of the world is a twofold one: “I have sinned,” and, “What shall I do unto thee?” The thought of sin involves the thought of God, as darkness that of light, and death that of life. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” Psalms 51:4Psalm 51:4. The Semitic mind was keenly alive to the nature of sin. Its varied ritual unceasingly pictured in characters of blood the enormity of moral guilt. “There is no philosophy from which the moral element is more entirely absent than the Hindu. Yet the confession of human sin finds acknowledgment even there. MULLEN’S Relig. Aspects of Hindu Philos., p.

224. The older hymns of the Vedas clearly recognised sin as an evil to be deprecated. “Deliver me from sin, as from a rope; let us obtain thy path of righteousness.… Varuna, take all fear away from me; be kind to me, O just king! Take away my sin… for afar from thee I am not the master even of a twinkling of the eye.” — Rig Veda, 2:28, 5: see also 2:29. 1. A mark against thee — Job regards himself as a mark, [gpm, a butt or target for God, (Ël, for thee, not against thee,) against which the arrows of the Almighty were directed. Job 6:4. A burden to myself — The Septuagint version renders, A burden to thee. The Masorites place this among the eighteen passages which they say were altered by transcribers. But the text agrees with the other Versions, and with most of the MSS. that have come down to us. The heaviest burden which sinful man is called to bear is himself.

V. 21. Pardon-Seeing thou art so gracious to others, why may not I hope for the same favour from thee? Dust-If thou dost not speedily help me, it will be too late. But I shall not be-It will be to late to shew me favour.

Verse 21. And why dost thou not pardon] These words are spoken after the manner of men. If thou have any design to save me, if I have sinned, why dost thou not pardon my transgression, as thou seest that I am a dying man; and to-morrow morning thou mayest seek me to do me good, but in all probability I shall then be no more, and all thy kind thoughts towards me shall be unavailing? If I have sinned, then why should not I have a part in that mercy that flows so freely to all mankind?

That Job does not criminate himself here, as our text intimates, is evident enough from his own repeated assertions of his innocence. And it is most certain that Bildad, who immediately answers, did not consider him as criminating but as justifying himself; and this is the very ground on which he takes up the subject. Were we to admit the contrary, we should find strange inconsistencies, if not contradictions, in Job’s speeches: on such a ground the controversy must have immediately terminated, as he would then have acknowledged that of which his friends accused him; and here the book of Job would have ended.

JOB

Verse 21. Why dost thou not pardon, &c. — Seeing thou art so gracious to others, so ready to preserve and forgive them; why may not I hope for the same favour from thee? For now shall I sleep in the dust — If thou dost not speedily help me it will be too late, I shall be dead, and so incapable of receiving those blessings which thou art wont to give to men in the land of the living; and thou shalt seek me, &c., but I shall not be — When thou shalt diligently seek for me that thou mayest show favour to me, thou wilt find that I am dead and gone, and so wilt lose the opportunity of doing it; help, therefore, speedily. The consideration of this, that we must shortly die, and perhaps may die suddenly, should make us all very solicitous to get our sins pardoned, and our iniquities taken away.

21. But I shall not be — He fain conceives that God will relent from his apparent purpose of ill, and diligently seek him, in order to bestow favour upon him, but fears that it will be too late, as he will soon be asleep in the dust, (Psalms 22:15Psalm 22:15, “dust of death,”) and no more be found among men.

EXCURSUS No. III.

SHEOL.

Sheol, lwav, is the word employed in the Old Testament to represent the abode of the dead. This word occurs sixty-five times, and is rendered in the authorized version thirty-one times by grave, as many more by hell, and three times by pit; in the Septuagint sixty-one times by hades, twice by death, qanatov, while twice (Job 24:19, Ezekiel 32:21) the Greek translators omit it altogether. The more ancient lexicographers derived the word from lav, to ask or crave; the more recent make the word cognate with l[v, to make hollow, (Gesenius,) or go down deep, (Furst,) a meaning which radically belongs to the German holle, and the same word in our own language, hell, (hollow;) Greek, koilou, Latin, coelum. So that the etymological result is reached, that the hollow beneath corresponds to the concave above. The sense of insatiableness and inexorable demand, that some of the more recent Hebrew writers (Proverbs 27:20; 30:15, 16; Isaiah 5:14; Habakkuk 2:5) attach to this word, tends to confirm the root idea to be that of “asking” or “seeking.” This craving they must have attributed to sheol objectively, as a place demanding to be filled, in keeping with the classical ideas, (“the rapacious Orcus” of Catullus, and “the robber,” arpakthr, in Callimachus,) and not subjectively, as Dr. Tayler Lewis, following Horsley eloquently urges, to anxious inquirers into the mysteries of the unseen world.

1. The grave was evidently associated with all their conceptions of the gathering place of their conscious dead; so that sheol may be regarded as an ideal enlargement of the sepulchre. The gloom of the grave so intermingled itself with the dim light of a primeval revelation as to darken and confuse their conceptions of the place, and condition of the dead. Thus the popular mind regarded sheol as the nether region of the universe, corresponding in depth to the height of the heavens, (Deuteronomy 32:22; Job 11:8; <19D908>Psalm 139:8; Ezekiel 31:14; Amos 9:2,) having depths of various gradations, (Psalms 86:13Psalm 86:13; Proverbs 9:18,) fastened with bars (Job 17:16) and gates, (Isaiah 38:10,) yet open and naked to God (Job 26:6). It also conceived sheol to be located somewhere within the bowels of the earth. Numbers 16:30, 33; 1 Samuel 28:13; Job 26:5; 38:16, 17; Psalms 63:9Psalm 63:9; Ezekiel 26:20; 32:18. With respect to a conception so foreign to our ordinary ideas, Ruloff profoundly suggests that the “kingdom of death cannot, as a region of immaterial and therefore of spiritual being, be subjected to the laws of locality of material beings in the degree in which the things of the visible world are so. There are spiritual localities of which we can have no idea, very probably extending themselves throughout the whole dimension of visibility and beyond it.” Such are some of the local features of this underworld of the dead. See page 166. On hades, and the New Testament idea of the under world, see notes on Ephesians 4:9, 10.

2. Notwithstanding, in the popular conception sheol was entirely distinct from the grave. The term sheol is used under circumstances where it is plain that the grave, in its ordinary meaning, cannot be intended. For instance, in Genesis 37:35, where the word first appears, Jacob says he will go down to sheol, hlav, unto his son, mourning. But in a preceding verse (the 33d) he had expressed his convictions that an evil beast had devoured him.

Lucifer, the Babylonian monarch, is, according to Isaiah 14:15, brought down to sheol, “to the sides of the pit;” while the 19th verse represents him as denied the honour of a grave, dbq. In powerful figure sheol is moved from beneath to meet him at his coming, and to stir up the dead for him. Verse 9.

The various etymological forms, in marked contradistinction to sheol, in which the older word (dbq) for sepulchre appears, show that sheol, in its primary sense, did not mean the grave, but from the beginning was used in the more general and abstract meaning of abode or state of the dead. See Methodist Quar. Revelation, 1856, 281-287.

It is also to be remarked, that while rbq, the grave, appears perhaps a hundred times in the Scriptures, it is never used in connexion with nephesh, soul, as is sheol. The reason is, that the Hebrews employed the one for the receptacle of the body, the other for that of the soul.

3. Sheol was a state or place which the righteous expected to enter. Jacob, as we have seen, declared that he “will go down in mourning to sheol,” hlwav, toward sheol, or on the way to sheol, this being the terminus of his sad pilgrimage (also Job 42:38). Job felt that if he wait, it is for “sheol, his house,” Job 17:13; see also 14:13. David triumphantly predicts that he (or the Greater than he) “shall not be left to, or in, sheol,” lwavl, Psalms 16:10Psalm 16:10, also Acts 2:27, which St. Peter cites from the Septuagint, where it is rendered hades, whose meaning he could have hardly been ignorant of; (compare <19D908>Psalm 139:8;) and Hezekiah assumes that had he died, sheol would have been his destination. Isaiah 38:17, 18. See also Psalms 30:3Psalm 30:3; 49:15; 86:13; Isaiah 38:10; Hosea 13:14. The Hebrew mind, front the most ancient times, held fast the idea of a gathering place of the conscious dead, as is evinced in the oft-recurring expression “gathered to his people.” Genesis 25:8, 17; 35:29; 49:33; Numbers 20:24. Compare verse 28. That this cannot mean the burial together of their dead, may be shown not only from the burial of Aaron, but from the application of the same phrase to Moses, (Numbers 27:13,) whom God buried apart from all others. Even Warburton admits that “the phrase originally arose (whatever people first employed it) from the notion of some common receptacle of souls.” — Divine Legation, vi, section iii, p. 4.

The righteous entered sheol with dread. It was an existence shrouded in mystery, one of indescribable darkness, (see note on Job 10:21, 22,) “without any order;” the realm, not only for vague and flitting spirits, but for fears and dark forebodings. The very name its inhabitants bore, µyapr, rephaim, (“the weak,” “the powerless,” from rapha, to be weak, see note on Job 26:5, like Homer’s oi kamontev, the wearied, for the dead,) was in keeping with the popular idea that death, even for the good, meant loss, not to say descent in being: a descent from the knowledge, the religious privileges, the prerogatives of life. Psalms 6:5Psalm 6:5; 30:3, 9; Isaiah 38:18. There were evidently fluctuations, both of faith and knowledge, as to the state of the dead, during the long centuries embraced by the patriarchal and Mosaical dispensations — twilights not only of light but of darkness — alternating periods of rational faith and doubt, if not despair. Such, Job embodied in himself. Yet it is plain under every dispensation that “the righteous had hope in his death.” He took with him into the darkness faith in his God, a child-like faith that the man of deliverance should come.

4. Into a world bearing the same name (sheol) the wicked were cast for purposes of punishment at the close of life. “They went down alive into sheol.” Numbers 16:33. “Sheol violently takes those who have sinned.” Job 24:19, (margin:) “The wicked shall be turned into sheol.” Psalms 9:17Psalm 9:17: “Let them be silent,” or, “cut off,” (margin,) in or to sheol. Psalms 31:17Psalm 31:17. See also Deuteronomy 32:22; Proverbs 5:5; 9:18; Isaiah 57:9.

Since the abodes of both good and bad were called sheol, we may be justified in inferring that the Hebrews believed themselves to enter, at death, either into one common receptacle, and to be separated from each other by laws of affiliation apparently implied in the frequent expression, “slept with his fathers;” or, as is more probable, into compartments or separate dwellings of the one great under world determined and fixed by God himself. See Peter’s Critical Diss. on Job, part iii, sec. 8. But the condition of the two vast classes was not at all similar. There were grades of punishment even in sheol. Moses spoke of a fire that burned unto the lowest sheol. Deuteronomy 32:22. Compare Job 31:12; Psalms 86:13Psalm 86:13. Moreover, the ancient Scriptures gave indications of depths, or a world of retribution, that lay beneath or beyond sheol, to which they gave the name of abaddon. This was total perdition. Our translators have accordingly rendered it destruction. Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Psalms 88:11Psalm 88:11; Proverbs 15:11; 27:20.

5. There are intimations in the Scriptures that the Hebrews regarded sheol as a temporary abode for the righteous. We have seen how they shuddered to enter it, and yet we are told that they looked for “a better” (country), even “a heavenly,” and that they endured, “that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Hebrews 11:16, 35. Faith plainly overleaped the dismal sojourn in sheol, and planted itself within the region of hope beyond. The later Hebrews descried a time when the dead should arise and sing. Isaiah 26:19. This was meridian light, preceded by a long-protracted dawn.

A dying Jacob strangely interrupts his predictions with the ejaculation, “I wait (piel form) for thy salvation, O Jehovah!” Genesis 49:18. Job compares his sojourn in sheol to the lot of a sentinel patiently waiting to be relieved, Job 14:14, 15; see note. The psalmist declares God shall not leave his soul in, or to, sheol, Psalms 16:10Psalm 16:10; but He shall ransom it from the hand, that is, the grasp, of sheol, 49:15; (comp. Hosea 13:14,) and that he himself shall awake in the likeness of God, 17:15. God shall swallow up death forever, jxnl, exclaims Isaiah, (Isaiah 25:8, a passage which the apostle refers to the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:54,) and “the earth shall cast out the rephaim,” the dwellers in sheol. Isaiah 26:19.

With these views agrees the remarkable language of Josephus: “They [the Pharisees] also believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and that the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again.” — Antiquities, xviii, chap. 1:3. About four centuries previously Plato had spoken of “an ancient saying which we,” he says, “now call to mind, that souls departing hence exist there, [in hades,] and return hither again, and are produced from the dead.” — Phaedo, sec.

40. The ancient Egyptians, too, according to Plutarch, gave the name amenthes to “that subterraneous region whither they imagine the souls of those who die go to after their decease; a name,” he says, “which expressly signifies the receiver and GIVER.” — De Iside, ch. 29.

The word shaal, the root of sheol, has among its significations, to demand or crave as A LOAN. 1 Samuel 1:28; 2 Kings 6:5. See also Furst, s.v. Thus the very word itself, like amenthes, may imply that the prey of sheol is to be rendered back.