And the light shall shine upon thy ways.

For he bringeth low the haughty and the proud,
But the humble-eyed shall he save.

And he shall be delivered through the purity of his hands. (?)

§ 25. Job's seventh reply.-Job admits that his complaints are virulent, but declares the fault to be God's, not his. Once more he bewails the impossibility of finding God, of pleading his cause before God and of hearing what God has to say against him. At whatever risk he would accept the ordeal, for he is sure that he would come out of it triumphant. As things are now, when he thinks of the terrible issue of his piety and the relentless power of God, he is terrified because of him. Then once more he complains of God's neglect of human wickedness and human misery. Why has he not regular days of assize, when he would hold his court of judgement? He draws three pictures, first of evil-doers, then of sufferers, outcast and oppressed, and then again of evildoers, who murder and rob with unchecked impunity. Who will show me up as a liar, he concludes, by proving that these things are not so? An obscure and desperately corrupt passage towards the close in brackets seems to be another orthodox' interpolation from some later editor or copyist, whose timid opinions were an echo of the friends'.

Then Job answered and said,

Yea, bitter is my complaint;

His hand lieth heavy upon my groaning. (?)

Oh that I knew where I might find him!

That I might come even to his judgement-seat!

I would order my cause before him,

And fill my mouth with arguments.

Oh that I knew the words which he would answer me,
And might understand what he would say unto me.
Let him plead against me in the greatness of his power,
If he would but give heed unto me. (?)

Then would there be a righteous man disputing with him;
And I should win my cause for ever. (?)

[But behold, I go forward, but he is not there; And backward, but I cannot perceive him :

If I seek him on the left hand, I behold him not;

If I turn aside on the right hand, I cannot discern him.]

For he knoweth the way in which I go:

If he tried me, I should come forth as gold.

My foot hath held his steps,

His way have I kept, and not declined.

I have not gone back from the commandment of his lips;
I have hidden the words of his mouth in my bosom.
But he chooseth, and who can turn him?

And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
So he will accomplish that which is appointed for me:
And many such things are with him. (?)
Therefore am I troubled because of him:
When I consider, I am afraid of him.
Yea, God maketh my heart faint,
And the Almighty troubleth me:

For I am confounded because of the darkness,
And my face is covered with gloom.

Why are times not laid up by the Almighty,
And why do they that know him not see his days?
There are who remove the landmarks,

Who rob the flock, and its shepherd.
They drive away the ass of the fatherless,
They take the widow's ox for a pledge.
They pluck the fatherless from the breast,
And take the suckling of the poor in pledge.
They turn the needy out of the way:

The poor of the earth hide themselves together.

Others go forth as wild asses in the desert,
They search for sustenance on the prairie :
There is no food for the children.

They reap by night in the field:

And they glean the vintage of the wealthy.

They pass the night naked without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

They go naked without clothing,

And hungry as they are, they bear sheaves. They press oil between the terraces (?),

And tread the winepresses, and suffer thirst.

There are those that rebel against the light;
They know not the ways thereof,
Nor abide in the paths thereof.
The murderer rises before the light,
He killeth the poor and needy. (?)
Dying men groan from out of the city,

And the soul of the wounded crieth out:
Yet God heareth not their prayer.

(?)

The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight,
Saying, 'No eye shall see me':
And disguiseth his face.

The thief slinketh in the night;

In the dark he breaketh through houses,
By day he shutteth himself up.

They all know not the light;

For darkness is morning to them,
They are familiar with its terrors. (?)

Drought and heat destroy it;

The snow waters sweep it away. (?)

His greatness shall be no more remembered;
And wickedness is broken as a tree. (?)

And his eyes are upon their ways.

They are exalted, and in a moment they are no more,

They are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.] If it be not so, who will prove me a liar,

And make my speech nothing worth?

§ 26. Bildad's third speech.-At this point many difficulties begin, and continue for some time. In the original Hebrew the speech of Bildad ends at the words, 'And the son of man who is a worm.' The passage, 'The shades writhe beneath' down to 'But the thunder of his power who can understand?' are part of Job's

THE INEFFABLE PURITY OF GOD

167

next speech. But they do not seem to be in their right place or to suit very well in the mouth of Job. I have followed Professor Siegfried and others in assigning them to Bildad, from whose mouth and in whose speech they are not inappropriate. Bildad does not attempt to answer Job. He cannot. He merely utters a fresh description of the absolute and incomparable purity and power of God. Professor Davidson, whose translations I have constantly adopted, says of the last few lines: The nervous brevity and sublimity of these words are unsurpassable.'

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Dominion and fear are with him,

He maketh peace in his high places.

Is there any number to his armies,

And upon whom doth not his light arise?

How then can man be justified with God,

Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Behold even the moon shineth not;

Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

How much less man, that is a maggot,

And the son of man, who is a worm!

The shades writhe beneath,

From under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Sheol is naked before him,

And Abaddon hath no covering.

He stretcheth out the north over emptiness,

And hangeth the earth upon nothing.

He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds;
And the cloud is not rent under them.

He shutteth off the face of the full-moon,

And spreadeth his cloud upon it.

He hath marked off a circle upon the face of the waters,
At the confines of light and darkness.

The pillars of heaven tremble,

And are appalled at his reproof.

He stilleth the sea with his power,

And by his understanding he smote through Rahab.

He shutteth the bars of heaven;

His hand pierceth the fleeing serpent.

Lo, these are the outskirts of his ways:

And how small a whisper is that which we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand ?

§ 27. Job's eighth reply.—Job's reply to Bildad is very long and contains many strange and heterogeneous passages. It passes over into a long soliloquy addressed to God and without reference to the friends. Zophar does not appear or speak at all in this last cycle of speeches. This acknowledgement of defeat or confusion on Zophar's part may be intended by the author, but what is much more difficult to understand is that much of what Job says seems inconsistent in his mouth, while the connexion of passage with passage is very obscure, and the transitions are very abrupt. It would seem as if an orthodox' editor had tampered with the original text.

The two short paragraphs which follow here are apposite enough. Job sarcastically thanks Bildad for his helpful speech. No doubt Bildad thinks that he has given much true wisdom and counsel to a foolish weakling. But Job asks, (1) Has Bildad really addressed his words to him? (i. e. Can he suppose in truth that they are any help to him?) (2) Who inspired Bildad's words (i.e., apparently, Do you wish me to suppose that your words are charged with divine inspiration?) Then he passes to a fresh asseveration of his righteousness; if he denied that, then indeed he would speak falsely. So far all is pretty clear. But immediately after, as we shall see, difficulties begin.

But Job answered and said,

How hast thou helped him that is without power!

How hast thou succoured the arm that hath no strength! How hast thou counselled him that is without wisdom,

And declared knowledge in abundance!

To whom hast thou uttered thy words,
And whose spirit came from thee?

As God liveth who hath taken away my right,

And the Almighty who hath made bitter my soul,

So long as my life is yet in me,

And the breath of God is in my nostrils,

My lips shall not speak unjustly,

Nor shall my tongue utter deceit.

God forbid that I should justify you:

Till I die I will not abandon mine integrity.

My righteousness I hold fast, and I will not let it go;
My heart reproacheth not one of my days.

§ 28. An editorial interpolation, or Zophar's third speech.— In Job's speech there is now suddenly introduced a passage