Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

'THE WATERS WEAR THE STONES

149

consciousness of pain for themselves alone. But this seems to contradict what is elsewhere said of the monotonous but peaceful quietude of Sheol.

§ 18. The second speech of Eliphaz.-With the reply of Eliphaz a second cycle of speeches begins. Eliphaz says nothing new. He merely complains again of Job's impiety, and urges afresh that no man can be just before God. The wicked enjoy but a temporary prosperity, and even this prosperity is only apparent, for their conscience pricks them sorely, and they are ever expecting in anxious terror the just and inevitable reward of their misdeeds.

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, Should a wise man utter windy knowledge,

And fill his breast with the east wind?
Should he reason with bootless talk?

Or with speeches that profit him nothing?
Yea, thou makest void the fear of God,
And... before him.

For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,

And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I:
Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

Art thou the first man that was born?
Or wast thou made before the hills?
Didst thou listen in the council of God?

And didst thou draw wisdom unto thee?
What knowest thou, that we know not?

What understandest thou, which is not in us?
With us is one both grayheaded and very aged,
One older in days than thy father.

Are the consolations of God too little for thee?
And a word which dealt gently with thee?
Why doth thine heart carry thee away,
And wherefore do thine eyes wink?

That thou turnest thy anger against God,

And lettest such words go out of thy mouth.

What is man, that he should be clean,

And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints;

Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

How much less the abominable and corrupt,
Man, who drinketh iniquity like water?

I will shew thee, hear me;

And that which I have seen I will declare;
Which wise men have told

From their fathers, and have not hid it:
Unto whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger yet passed through it.
The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,
And few in number are the

years laid up for the oppressor.

A dreadful sound is in his ears:

In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, (?)
And he is waited for of the sword.

He...

He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Trouble and anguish make him afraid;

They prevail against him, as an angel appointed to destroy. (?)

[For he stretched out his hand against God,

And strengthened himself against the Almighty.

He ran against him with defiant neck,

With the thick bosses of his shield.

He covered his face with his fat,

And made collops of grease on his loins,

And he settled in desolate cities,

And in houses which no man should inhabit,

Which were destined to be ruins.]

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,

Neither shall . .

The flame shall dry up his branches,

And his fruit is scattered by the wind.

His palm branch fadeth before its time,

And his tuft shall not be green.

He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
And shall cast off his blossom as the olive.

For the bands of the impious shall perish,
And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
They conceive mischief, and bring forth disaster,
And their belly produceth deceit.

PAIN UNASSUAGED

151

"The consolations of God' refer to Eliphaz's first speech, when he told Job of that nightly vision which had appeared to him.

§ 19. Job's fourth reply.-Job's reply is difficult; in many places the text is very corrupt. He could easily imitate the vain words of the friends were he in their place. As it is, whether he speak or be silent, God's wrath (i.e. the agony of his disease and the weight of his afflictions and loneliness) is equally felt. He sends up a pitiful appeal to the silent earth to let his innocent death cry out for vengeance continually. Yet hardly has he uttered this appeal before he becomes conscious that the Author of his woes is also the living Testifier of his innocence. He seizes hold of the striking thought that the true, just God should arbitrate, not only in the suit between him and his friends, but also in the suit between him and God. In God then is his hope or pledge: his friends are blinded to the truth. He regards himself (or rather the author somewhat undramatically regards him) as a type of suffering innocence, known far and wide. Upright men are horrified at the sight; the impious rejoice. And yet in spite of all, or even because of it, the righteous and innocent sufferer holds all the more straitly on his way. He clings to goodness all the more firmly, and waxes stronger in the certainty of righteousness. After thus rising to this noble faith in the power and persistence of goodness, Job's spirit seems to sink back exhausted. The speech ends in a lament over the inevitable issue of his woes in death and Sheol. If he hope at all, it can only be for the grave. Such a hope is no hope. It is mere misery.

Then Job answered and said,
I have heard many such things:
Troublous comforters are ye all.

Shall vain words have no end?

Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?

I also could speak as ye do:

If your soul were in my soul's stead, I could join words together against you, And I could shake mine head at you.

I could strengthen you with my mouth,

And I would not spare the condolence of my lips.

But now, though I speak, my pain is not assuaged:
And though I forbear, what am I eased?

[merged small][ocr errors]

His wrath teareth and persecuteth me:
He gnasheth upon me with his teeth;
He sharpeneth his eyes against me.
[They gape upon me with their mouth;

They smite me upon the cheek reproachfully;
They gather themselves together against me.
God hath delivered me over to the impious,

And cast me into the hands of the wicked.] I was at ease, but he broke me asunder:

He hath taken me by my neck, and dashed me to pieces; He hath set me up for his mark.

His arrows compass me round about,

He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;

He poureth out my gall upon the ground.

He breaketh into me with breach upon breach,

He runneth upon me like a giant.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,
And thrust my horn into the dust.

My face is red with weeping,

And on my eyelids is the shadow of death; Although there is no violence in mine hands: And my prayer is pure.

O earth, cover not thou my blood,

And let my cry have no resting-place.

Yet even now, behold, my Witness is still in heaven,

And my Testifier is on high.

My friends are they that mock me,

But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,

That he may arbitrate between man and God,
And between a man and his neighbour!

For a few years shall pass,

And I shall go the way whence I shall not return. My spirit is spent, my days are extinct,

The grave is ready for me.

Do thou now become surety for me,

THE STRENGTH OF THE RIGHTEOUS

Who else will be my pledge?

For thou hast hid their heart from understanding:
Therefore thou wilt not exalt them. (?)

Thou hast made me a byword of the peoples,
And I am become a portent before them.
Mine eye is become dim by reason of anguish,
And all my members are as a shadow.
Upright men are appalled at this,

And the impious triumpheth over the innocent.

But the righteous holdeth on his way,

153

And he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.

But as for you all, attack me again;

I shall not find one wise man among you.

My days pass away without hope;

The wishes of my heart are destroyed. (?)

If I hope,-Sheol is mine house,

I spread out my bed in the darkness; I say to the pit, Thou art my mother, To the worm, Thou art my sister: Where then is my hope?

And as for my happiness, who shall see it? Will they descend with me into Sheol,

Shall we go down together into the dust? (?)

The righteous holdeth on his way. A justly famous verse. It seems to mean that in spite of suffering the righteous clings all the more to his righteousness. His sufferings test his goodness and strengthen it. 'Appalled' though the upright spectator may therefore be at these sufferings, the sufferer himself persists in the path of righteousness. It is only fair to add that the passage is much disputed over by commentators, and that the thought, however fine in itself, seems almost too sudden and unexpected in the mouth of Job in its present connexion. The passage may be misplaced.

$20. The second speech of Bildad.-Bildad's reply is trivial in every sense of the word, both etymological and customary. Once

« AnteriorContinuar »