THE VIOLENCE OF ZOPHAR

In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits:
Every hand of the wretched shall come upon him. (?)
God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him

And shall rain it upon him as his food. (?)
He shall not escape from the weapon of iron,
The bow of brass shall strike him through. (?)
The shaft protrudeth from his back,
It flasheth out from his gall:
Terrors are upon him. (?)

Darkness is laid up for his treasures;

A fire not blown by man shall consume him; It shall devour all that is left in his tent. (?) The heaven shall reveal his iniquity;

And the earth shall rise up against him. The increase of his house shall depart,

It shall be washed away in the day of his wrath. (?) This is the portion of a wicked man from God,

And the heritage appointed unto him by God.

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§ 23. The sixth reply of Job.-Job is driven by the exaggerations of his friends to exaggerate in his turn. He now urges that so far from the life of the wicked being full of trouble and his death of horror, the one is prosperous, the other peaceful. (An orthodox correction, here marked off by brackets, follows this outburst of indignation.) He then proceeds to tear in pieces another dogma still current in his day. If the sinner does not feel God's wrath, his children will feel it.' But that, replies Job, is no just retribution; when the sinner is in Sheol, the good or evil fortunes of his family are no concern to him. In a short paragraph full of pathos and dignity he describes the equal lot of the good and the bad. He urges that the experience of travelled men runs quite contrary to the empty assertions of the friends. In the day of destruction' the wicked are spared. In their lives they are feared, and they are honoured after their death. Job's speech concludes the second 'round.'

But Job answered and said,

Hear diligently my speech,

And let this be your consolation!

Suffer me that I may speak ;

And after that I have spoken, mock on.

Is my complaint against a man?

And why should not my spirit be impatient?

Mark me, and be astonished,

And lay your hand upon your mouth.
Even when I think thereon I am afraid,
And trembling taketh hold of my flesh.
Wherefore do the wicked live,

Become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Their seed is established with them,
And their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,

Neither is the rod of God upon them.
They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.

They sing to the timbrel and lute,

And rejoice at the sound of the pipe. They spend their days in prosperity, And go down in peace unto Sheol.

Yet they say unto God, 'Depart from us;

For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?'

[Lo, their welfare is not in their hand :

The counsel of the wicked be far from me!

How oft is the candle of the wicked put out!

And how oft cometh their destruction upon them!

The pangs of his wrath seize them.

They are as stubble before the wind,

And as chaff that the storm carrieth away.]

'God layeth up his iniquity for his children.' Let him requite it to himself, that he may feel it! Let his own eyes see his destruction,

And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty! For what concern hath he in his house after him, When the number of his months is fulfilled?

One dieth in his full strength,

Being wholly at ease and quiet.

His pails are full of milk,

And the marrow of his bones is moistened. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, And hath never tasted happiness.

THE EVERLASTING WHY

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They lie down alike in the dust,

And the worms cover them.

Behold, I know your thoughts,

And the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me. For ye say, 'Where is the house of the tyrant?

And where are the dwelling-places of the wicked?'
Have ye not asked them that travel by the way,
And do ye not regard their tokens?-

That the wicked is spared in the day of destruction,
And in the day of wrath he is delivered.

And who declareth his way to his face?

And who shall repay him what he hath done? He is even carried to the grave,

And they keep watch over his tomb. (?) The clods of the valley are sweet unto him, And every man draweth after him,

As there were innumerable before him. (?) How then would ye comfort me in vain,

Seeing that in your answers there remaineth only falsehood?

§ 24. The third speech of Eliphaz.-Eliphaz in his reply insists that Job's sufferings are deserved. He invents a series of crimes of which he asserts Job to have been guilty. He urges him to repent and to humble himself before God, who will then hear him and deliver him.

In the opening of his speech he points out in striking language that God is self-sufficient to himself; no man can benefit God by his piety, nor, on the other hand, can man's wickedness do God harm. God does not therefore require man to be good for God's sake, but for man's sake. Nor does he chastise man because he is pious. God is neither jealous of human goodness nor can man do him a service. Here it is Eliphaz who is made to deny certain lingering superstitions about God. It is another question whether man in his fight against evil and in the service of good may not be said, in some more than metaphorical sense, to be helping forward God's purpose and cause.

A wise friend and critic, who has looked deep into the spiritual realities of the religious life, has suggested to me that there is another sense too in which the doctrine of God's 'self-sufficiency' is not wholly adequate. God must not be regarded as an outsider. Complete in himself though he be, yet all human beings participate in him. There are those who feel this doctrine, which is supported

by many passages in the Hebrew Bible very keenly. To them the conviction that God, in a certain real and spiritual sense, is near us and even in us, as well as outside us, destroys fear and makes doubt impossible. If God, they say, were not in man, man would be unconscious of God outside him. If there were no germinating love inside the child, he would not become conscious of the love which surrounds him. Yet children, whose inner power of love and whose knowledge of good and evil are still small and feeble, can only be impressed or influenced by a purely outside God and Master. But the Master within gradually develops, and rules in desired harmony with the Master without. The more the internal spirit can feel itself in loving accord with the external Spirit, the greater will be the harmony between them, the fuller and more inviolable the trust of the finite and the human in the Infinite and the Divine. As external and external only, God tends to become regarded as a mere outside Ruler or Judge, and suffering discourages, when, on the crude, tit-for-tat theory, it seems 'undeserved.' But if we, in some sense or other, are created in his image, have 'his holy spirit within us,' and may participate at whatever distance in his own life (by goodness and wisdom and religious communion), then is God nearer and closer than a father. We are spirit of his spirit; and the problem of suffering tends to lose itself in the very closeness of our union with the divine. If we have God within us, if we participate in the infinite divine life around us, then fear and mistrust and doubt are absurd, and hopelessness is impossible. For of our own life, which on this belief is also, in a real sense, God's life and conditioned by him, it is impossible to doubt. We are, we are his, and he is ours. 'Speak to Him then, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can

meet

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.'

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

Can a man be profitable unto God?

Nay, the wise man is only profitable unto himself.

Is it any advantage to the Almighty, if thou art righteous? Or is it gain to him, if thou makest thy ways perfect? Will he reprove thee because of thy piety?

Will he enter with thee into judgement?

Is not thy wickedness great,

And are not thine iniquities infinite?

For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, And stripped the naked of their clothing.

'HOW DOTH GOD KNOW?'

Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,
And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
Thou hast sent widows away empty,

And thou hast crushed the arms of the fatherless,
Therefore snares are round about thee,

And sudden fear troubleth thee;

Thy light is become dark, that thou canst not see;
And abundance of waters cover thee.

Is not God in the height of heaven?

And behold the height of the stars, how high they are! But thou sayest, 'How doth God know?

Will he judge through the dark cloud?

Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not;
And he walketh upon the vault of heaven.'

Wilt thou keep the old way

Which is trodden by wicked men?

Who are cut down out of time,

Whose foundation is overflown with a flood:

Who say unto God, 'Depart from us':

And 'What can the Almighty do unto us?' The righteous see it, and are glad :

And the innocent laugh them to scorn,

Saying, 'Surely our adversaries are destroyed,

And that which they have left the fire hath consumed.'

But do thou become familiar with him, and be at peace:
Thereby good shall come unto thee.

Receive, I pray thee, instruction from his mouth,
And lay up his words in thine heart.

If thou return to the Almighty, humbling thyself,
If thou put away iniquity far from thy tent,

[If thou cast away thy gold unto the dust,

And thy fine gold among the stones of the brooks:

Then the Almighty shall be thy gold,

And silver his teaching unto thee !]

Then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty,

And shalt lift up thy face unto God.

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Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, And thou shalt pay thy vows.

Thou shalt devise a thing, and it shall be established unto

thee: