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found for myself much instruction. I profited in her : unto him that giveth me wisdom I will give glory. For I purposed to practise her, and I was zealous for that which is good; and I shall never be put to shame. My soul hath wrestled in her, and in my doing I was exact: I spread forth my hands to the heaven above, and bewailed my ignorances of her. I set my soul aright unto her, and in pureness I found her. I gat me a heart joined with her from the beginning: therefore shall I not be forsaken. My inward part also was troubled to seek her: therefore have I gotten a good possession. The Lord gave me a tongue for my reward; and I will praise him therewith.

Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and lodge in the house of instruction. Say, wherefore are ye lacking in these things, and your souls are very thirsty? I opened my mouth, and spake, Get her for yourselves without money. Put your neck under the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction: she is hard at hand to find. Behold with your eyes, how that I laboured but a little, and found for myself much rest. Get you instruction with a great sum of silver, and gain much gold by her. May your soul rejoice in his mercy, and may ye not be put to shame in praising him. Work your work before the time cometh, and in his time he will give you your reward.

In the Authorized Version the last and famous sentence ran, 'Work your work betimes,' but 'Before the time cometh' is more literal. It means before it is too late, before old age and death come upon you. Your work' means the search for wisdom, which to the author includes goodness. In his time he will give you your reward.' 'In his time': perchance on earth, perchance beyond it. 'Your reward': but we must remember that the giver of the 'reward' is God. His 'rewards' may sometimes be hard to understand.

A FAMOUS AND DIFFICULT BOOK

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CHAPTER III

THE BOOK OF JOB

§ 1. Characteristics of the Book.-The most famous and the most important production of the Wisdom Literature is the Book of Job. It is also in many respects the most difficult. Its date is uncertain. It was assuredly written before Ben Sira, and it was probably written after Nehemiah. Thus we get a period of 200 years (400-200 B. C.), between which two limits the author of Job lived and wrote.

It might seem as if I ought to have put my chapter on Job before my chapter on the son of Sirach, seeing that Ben Sira is later in time. But Ben Sira, though his book is mainly the work of one man, is yet closely connected in form and thought and subject-matter with the Book of Proverbs. There is good cause therefore for Proverbs to be immediately succeeded by Ben Sira. Job, on the other hand, though nearer to the Proverbs in time, is very different both from it and from the son of Sirach in thought, subject and form. Proverbs is a collection of many adages of many authors dealing with a hundred different subjects. Ben Sira's book is probably for the greater part of it his own, but it is not a unity. Like the Proverbs, it also contains a number of detached reflections on a number of different subjects, though we saw how these reflections frequently outstripped the limits of the single proverb couplet and partook rather of the nature of the 'essay. But Job (apart from certain later additions and interpolations) is a single whole. It deals with and discusses one central subject. It has a distinct beginning and end. It is a poem:

a work of art; the creation of one mind occupying itself with a single theme.

I have said that Job is both difficult and famous. It is difficult both because of the Hebrew, which is often obscure and doubtless often corrupt, and because of the thought, which deals with one of

the most difficult of all subjects and sometimes overpowers the writer. And thirdly, it is difficult because there are now in it several interpolations (though how many is a moot point) which darken the connexion and break in upon the sequence of the thought. But for all its difficulty it is, and always will be, a very famous book, though possibly more often alluded to and quoted from than read, and more often read than studied.

The prose introduction to the poem is short, simple and dramatic. It is much the most familiar portion of the entire book. The story on which the poem is hung or depends has become one of the best-known stories in all the world. And even if the poem itself, which consists, as we shall see, of a number of speeches spoken by Job, by his friends, and finally by God himself, be long and obscure, yet its subject-the undeserved sufferings of the righteous and their relation to the justice of God-maintains for all time its painful interest. Moreover, though much be obscure and difficult, there is a very great deal of splendid poetry and sonorous language. In these respects the often very inaccurate translation of the Authorized Version is a true reflection of the original. The Book of Job is the home of many current sayings which are often employed without any conscious recollection of the source from which they come. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' 'Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not also receive evil? These quotations from the prologue are well known to be from Job, but the same could not perhaps be said of the following. There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest.' 'Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.' 'Happy is the man whom God correcteth." 'How forcible are right words!' Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' 'Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.' 'The king of terrors.' 'I know that my Redeemer liveth.' 'The root of the matter.' 'He maketh peace in his high places.' The price of wisdom is above rubies.' I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.' 'The house appointed for all living.' Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?' One cannot help feeling it to be a great pity that several of these famous sayings are inaccurate renderings of the Hebrew, and must disappear from any correct translation.

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§ 2. The traditional story of Job.-The Book of Job, then, is a poem composed of speeches, with a narrative introduction and

SUFFERING AND SIN

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epilogue in prose. The story on which the speeches hang is probably old and traditional, and has been adopted and adapted, and not invented, by the author. (We may compare the practice of Shakespeare and of the Greek tragedians.) The story perhaps contained little more than this, that Job, a very good and very fortunate man, was suddenly overwhelmed with dire misfortunes, which he bore with exemplary patience, fortitude and piety, and that he was ultimately restored to prosperity.

It is right to mention here a theory which finds favour with many modern scholars, namely, that there was in existence not merely a story of Job as a tradition, but a written folk-tale or legend which our author practically took over in the prologue and the epilogue. This supposition would explain the variations in Job's character in the prologue and the speeches, the seemingly different purposes of the one and the other, the ignoring of Satan in the speeches, Job's restoration to prosperity in the epilogue, and many other differences between the framework and the substance of the book. It is, however, impossible for me to enter into this subject here. Even if our author took over the prologue and epilogue ready written, this very adoption shows that he himself could interpret them to be in fair harmony with his own aim and object.

That Job had been long regarded as a pattern of virtue (although not an Israelite) we know from the prophet Ezekiel, who couples his name with the names of Noah and Daniel as examples of pre-eminent righteousness. His story was used by our author as a framework for a poetical discussion upon the grave problem of the calamities and sufferings of the righteous viewed in relation to the rule of an all-powerful and all-righteous God. If God be all good and all wise, why do the righteous suffer? Now the mere raising of this vast problem involves a proposition, the effectual establishment of which may be justly regarded as an important and integral object of the entire book. That proposition is this: There is such a thing as suffering which is in no sense whatever the consequence of the sufferer's sin.

Besides the main problem, other subsidiary but connected questions are also incidentally raised. For example: (1) Why do the wicked prosper? and (2) Is piety merely mercantile? And if the author establishes the proposition that there is such a thing as suffering which is in no sense whatever the consequence of the sufferer's sin, he also lays down the supplementary and complementary thesis, that there is such a thing as wholly disinterested goodness. For if goodness does not always and necessarily pay, in the ordinary sense of the word, then only is its disinterestedness assured.

§3. The problem of Job.-We must remember that the Book of Job is a poem, and not a philosophical treatise. Moreover, the writer is a Hebrew and not a Greek, so that logical progression of thought, a clear statement of the problem and a definite enunciation of its solution, must not be expected from him. His genius had its natural forms of expression and the limits in which it worked. Again, the propositions which he sought to establish and the problems he raised were comparatively new. To the riddle of undeserved suffering few intelligent answers had yet been given. Indeed, the current answer denied the riddle by obstinately refusing to allow that any 'suffering' was 'undeserved.' Our author had therefore to fight his own way and to wrestle unaided with his own thoughts. One solution indeed had been suggested which he might have known, and knowing might have made good use of. It is the solution of the suffering Servant of God, of whom we read in Part I, p. 501. But the author of Job does not seem to have remembered it, or to have grasped and realized its universal application. Although his poem is a work of art, elaborated with evident care, yet we seem to hear in it the tumultuous echoes of his own mind, which never rested in any clear and definite conclusions. We get glimpses, intuitions, Ahnungen, as our German kinsfolk would say, but little or no formulated doctrine. To the problem, 'Why do the righteous suffer?' his last answer appears to be, 'We cannot tell.' All that our limited faculties will enable us to do is to observe the wisdom of God in nature, and to argue that if God be wise as the Lord of Nature, he is wise as the Lord of Man. Therefore what we call undeserved suffering is caused by divine wisdom, and if by God's Wisdom, then by his Goodness. For to the author of Job, as to all the writers of the Wisdom Literature, goodness and wisdom are one. But this argument is no true explanation, so once more we come back to the three simple words: we cannot tell. Twenty-two hundred years of painful search and patient thought have hardly brought us much nearer to any more adequate reply. Even the smallest advance demands and justifies the search and thought of every succeeding age; but nevertheless the best answer for us to-day, as long ago to the author of Job, is to put our trust in the wisdom and the goodness of God.

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§ 4. The relation of goodness and wickedness to outward prosperity and adversity. It is natural to ask how the problem arose in men's minds and why it was felt so keenly. The Hebrews, like other nations of antiquity, believed that prosperity should follow goodness, and should be its inevitable reward. This appeared to

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