THE ARGUMENTS OF THE ADVERSARY 129 And he said, 'Bare of all was I born, And bare of all shall I die; The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; In all this Job sinned not, nor attributed folly unto God. And it came to pass on a day that the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Adversary came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto the Adversary, From whence comest thou?' And the Adversary answered the Lord, and said, 'From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.' And the Lord said unto the Adversary, 'Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he clingeth fast to his blamelessness, although thou didst instigate me to destroy him without cause.' And the Adversary answered the Lord, and said, 'Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; surely he will curse thee to thy face.' And the Lord said unto the Adversary, Behold, he is in thine hand; only his life do thou preserve.' So the Adversary went forth from the presence of the Lord, and he smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And Job took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, as he sat among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, 'Dost thou still cling fast unto thy blamelessness? curse God, and die.' But he said unto her, 'As one of the foolish women speaketh, so speakest thou. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?' In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: and they met together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And they lifted up their eyes from afar, but they knew him not, and they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his pain was very great. After what I have already said it is unnecessary to add anything by way of explanation to the prologue. 'Sons of God' are the angels, and the Adversary is one of them. We now pass on to the speeches, and first to Job's opening soliloquy. Passages which appear to some scholars to be later accretions or interpolations are indicated by oblong brackets. § 11. Job's opening soliloquy.-There is not much difficulty to follow the argument in this speech. Job wishes he had never been born, or had died at his birth. The shadowy life of Sheol, the same for good and bad, rich and poor, is at any rate peaceful and painless. Moving forward from his own suffering to the sufferers among mankind in general, he asks why does he (i.e. God) 'give light' to those who are destined to a life of misery and bitterness; why are they born at all? After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, Behold a man child! Let that day be darkness; Let not God regard it from above, Neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it; Let blacknesses of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; Lo, let that night be sterile, Let no joyful voice come therein. Let the cursers of days curse it, Who are skilful to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; Why died I not from my birth? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came into being? 'WHERE THE WEARY ARE AT REST For now should I have lain still and been quiet, : Who filled their houses with silver They hear not the voice of the taskmaster. Wherefore giveth he light to him that is in misery, Who long for death, but it cometh not; And search for it more than for hid treasures; Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave; To a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in? For my sighing cometh instead of my food, And my roarings are poured out like water. For the fear which I dread-it cometh upon me, And whatsoever I am afraid of overtaketh me. I have no ease nor quiet, Nor rest, but trouble cometh. 131 Individual lines or expressions of difficulty I have little space to explain either here or elsewhere. Note, however, that 'cursers of days' is an allusion to magicians or conjurors who professed to be able to cast a spell of misfortune on a given day. And the 'rousers of Leviathan' is an allusion to a bit of popular, though old-world, mythology, according to which darkness is caused by a great flying serpent throwing its folds round sun or moon or stars and covering them up. Those who rouse up Leviathan darken therefore the lights of day or night. § 12. The first speech of Eliphaz.-Eliphaz reminds Job that none perish in their calamity except grave sinners. Let him not therefore despair or complain. If he be pious in the main, he may be No man is No affliction confident that he will be delivered from his woes. really sinless. Anger will only make matters worse. is causeless. Let him leave his case in God's hands, and receive humbly God's chastening. Then his future shall be prosperous. Such is the argument of the speech, which is not violent in tone towards Job. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, If one should assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be vexed? 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 takest it ill; Is not thy piety thy confidence, The uprightness of thy ways thy hope? Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? So far as I have seen, they that plough iniquity, By the blast of God they perish, And by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. [The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, And the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.] Now a word stole to me secretly, And mine ear received therefrom a whisper; Fear came upon me, and trembling, Then a wind passed before my face; It stood but I could not discern the appearance thereof— I heard a murmuring and a voice: 'Shall mortal man be just before God? Shall a man be pure before his Maker? MAN'S JUSTICE BEFORE GOD Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants; How much more them that dwell in houses of clay, Who are crushed like the moth ? They are destroyed from morning to evening: They perish for ever without any regarding it. Is not their tent cord torn up? They die, and that without wisdom.' [Call then, is there any that will answer thee; And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn ?] Anger killeth the foolish man, And passion slayeth the silly one. I have seen the foolish taking root: But suddenly his homestead was cursed! His children are far from safety, 133 And they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them. His harvest the hungry eateth up, And the thirsty drinketh his wine. [For affliction cometh not forth of the dust, Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; But man is born unto trouble, As the sparks fly upward.] As for me, I would seek unto God, And unto God would I commit my cause: And sendeth waters upon the fields: Who setteth up on high those that be low; He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, So that their hands bring nothing permanent to pass. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: And the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the daytime, And grope in the noonday as in the night. But he saveth the poor from the sword, And the needy from the hand of the mighty. |