NOTES. CHAP. I. II. In these chapters is contained a brief account of the excellent character, and flourishing condition of Job;-of the afflictions decreed in heaven to be sent upon him, and the design of those afflictions, viz. to prove the disinterestedness and firmness of his integrity and piety;-of the actual occurrence of these afflictions, and of Job's conduct under them ;-and of the visit of three of his friends to mourn with him and comfort him. The character of this introduction, so far as it relates to the upper world, is thus given by Scott. "This is not history, but a piece of allegorical scenery. The noble instruction, which it veileth, is; that God governs the world by the instrumentality of second causes, that the evils of human life are under his direction, and that the afflictions of good men are appointed by him for the illustration of their virtue, and for advancing, by that means, the honour of religion." The learned Mr Poole also observes, "You must not think that these things were really done, ... but it is only a parabolical representation of that great truth, that God by his wise and holy providence doth govern all the actions of men and devils to his own ends." Ver. 3.-three thousand camels: The Arabs used these animals in war, in their caravans, and for food. One of their ancient poets, whose hospitality grew into a proverb, is reported to have killed yearly, in a certain month, ten camels every day, for the entertainment of his friends. SCOTT, from Schultens and Pococke. Ver. 5.-and renounced God in their hearts. i. e. been unmindful of him, dismissed him from their thoughts, or withheld the reverence and homage, which are his due. It is hardly credible that Job suspected his children of cursing God. He was only apprehensive lest the gaiety of a festival had made them forget God, and neglect his service and worship. The term 2 generally signifies to bless. It was the term of salutation between friends at meeting, and parting. See Gen. xxviii. 3. xlvii. 10. In the latter use of it, it corresponded to the English phrase to bid farewell to, and, like that, came to be used in a bad sense for to renounce, to abandon, to dismiss from the mind, to disregard. It may imply disregard, neglect, renunciation, or abhorrence, according to the connexion in which it is used. Xaigaw in Greek, and valere in Latin are used in the same way. Thus Eurip. Med. 1044. Οὐ δῆς ἔγωγε χαιρέτο βουλεύματα. And Cicero in a letter to Atticus, (VIII. 8.) in which he complains of the disgraceful flight of Pompey, applies to him a quotation from Aristophanes ; πολλά χαίρειν εἰπὼν τῷ καλῷ, bidding farewell to honour, he fled to Brundisium. Another instance of this use of valere is in Ter. And. IV. 2. 14. Valeant, qui inter nos dissidium volunt. Also in Cic. de Nat. Deor. I. 44. near the end; Deinde si maxime talis est Deus, ut nulla gratiâ, nullâ hominum caritate teneatur, valeat! See Schultens and Rosenmul. Ver. 6. sons of God: i. e. the angels. See ch. xxxviii. 7. Dan. iii. 25. 28. Satan: There has been a question whether by the person denominated Satan in this chapter is denoted the malignant spirit, the enemy of God and man, otherwise called the Devil; or one of the sons of God, a faithful, but too suspicious, servant of Jehovah. The latter opinion is adopted by Dathe, Eichhorn, Ilgen, and others. Their views are briefly as follows: The supreme Being is represented as holding a deliberative council for the purpose of considering the state of his dominions. In accommodation to the conceptions of the age, the representation is borrowed from the patriarchal form of government, in which the patriarch was accustomed to call together the leading members of the fam ily, and to assign them their duties and employments. Into this council Satan, a zealous servant of Jehovah, to whom had been assigned the honourable office of visiting different parts of the earth, for the purpose of observing the conduct of Jehovah's subjects, and of bringing information respecting the state of his dominions, makes his appearance with his brethren on his return from his mission. Such is the piety of Job, that it has attracted the special regard of Jehovah; so that he is led to put the question to Satan, whether, in the course of his journey, he had observed that illustrious example of human virtue. Satan, who, from his recent observation of man's selfishness and depravity, may be supposed to have lost all faith in the reality and genuineness of any virtue, of which man may exhibit the appearance, replies, that he doubts whether Job himself serves Jehovah from a disinterested motive;—that his integrity and piety arose rather from the love of a good estate, than from love of his Maker. The suspicious character ascribed to Satan, say these critics, is a very proper attribute of a censor of morals, and necessary in order that he may distinguish genuine piety from specious hypocrisy. In regard to the calamities, which he inflicted upon Job, he did nothing contrary to the will of Jehovah, and is not more deserving of censure than any minister of state who executes the commands of his sovereign. This view of the subject has been defended by some critics, because they could not easily account for the presence of the Devil in heaven amongst the angels of God, and for his free conversation with Jehovah; by others, because they regarded the belief in the Devil, as having had no existence amongst the Jews, until their return from the Babylonish captivity, and consequently as inconsistent with their opinion of the high antiquity of the poem. In regard to the agency of Satan, it is observed by Scott that Job himself, and the other human speakers in the poem, constantly represent his calamities as the immediate act of God. They, therefore had no idea of this evil being, nor of his agency in human affairs. He is never once mentioned throughout the poem. Ver. 11.-will he renounce thee. The phrase is stronger here than in verse 5. It imports an utter and public renunciation of religion, as a vain thing. Scort. Ver.-16. fire of God: i. e. lightning: which has a similar appellation in Eurip. Med. 144. Αἶ, αἶ· διά μου κεφαλᾶς φλὸς οὐρανία Βαίη. Ver.-20. rent his mantle, and shaved his head: The custom of rending the mantle, as an expression of grief, is said to prevail at the present day in Persia, and, like that of shaving the head, to have been common amongst several nations of antiquity. Herodotus (II. 26) remarks that the latter was the practice of all nations except the Egyptians, in cases of mourning. Ver. 21-my mother's womb: i. e. the womb of the earth, the universal mother; for he speaks of returning thither. The same figure is found in several languages. See Cic. de Nat. Deor. II. 26. CH. II. Ver. 4. Skin for skin: This is a proverbial expression, importing, as is generally supposed, that any man will give the skin or life of another, whether animal or man, to save, his own. Ver. 7. It is generally supposed that Job was afflicted with that species of leprosy called elephantiasis, the elephant disease; so called from its swelling the mouth, legs, and feet to an enormous size, although the body at the same time is emaciated. The pain is said not to be very great, but there is a great debility of the system, and great uneasiness and grief. See Jahn's Archæology. § 189. Ver. 9. Renounce God, and die. i. e. since you must die. Since your exemplary piety has been of no use to you, give it up; renounce God; desist from your idle prayers and praises, and look to death, as the only termination of your miseries;-the only fruit of your virtue, which you will ever receive. SCHULTENS. But, perhaps, the common meaning of the verb 772, to bless, has as good a claim to reception, as that which we have adopted in the text. According to this rendering, Job's wife ironically exhorts him to go on blessing God, since he received such precious returns for it. Bless God, and die. i. e. Bless God ever so much, thou wilt die after all. Or as Poole has it, "I see thou art set upon blessing God; thou blessest God for giving, and thou blessest God for taking away, and thou art still blessing God for thy loathsome and tormenting diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly; giving thee more and more of that kind of mercy, for which thou blessest and praisest him. Go on, therefore, in this thy pious and generous course, and die as a fool dieth, and carry this reputation to thy grave, that thou hadst not common sense in thee to discern between good and evil, between thy friends and thy foes." So Ovid, Amor. L. III. Eleg. ix. 35. Cum rapiant mala fata bonos, (ignoscite fasso) Vive pius, moriere pius. Cole sacra, colentem Mors gravis a templis in cava busta trahet, In the Septuagint version is inserted a passage, of which the following is a translation. Ver. 9. "And after much time had elapsed, his wife said unto him, how long wilt thou persevere, saying, 'Behold, I will wait a little while, cherishing the hope of my recovery?' Behold, thy memorial hath disappeared from the earth, The sons and the daughters, the pains and toils of my womb, with these I have struggled to no purpose. Even thou thyself sittest amongst loathsome worms, passing the night in the open air; while I, a wanderer and a drudge from house to house and from place to place, watch the sun till his going down, that I may rest from the toils and afflictions, which now oppress me. Utter then some blasphemy against the Lord, and die.” Whence this passage originated, it is impossible to say. Dathe, with astonishing sagacity, suggests that it might have been added by some person, who thought it incredible that an angry woman could be content with saying so little on the occasion, as in the Hebrew is ascribed to the wife of Job. If, however, any should think this theory unsound, they may suppose that it was written by some person by way of paraphrase in the margin of his bible, and that the transcriber of the manuscript, seeing it in the margin, supposed it to be a part of the text accidentally omitted, and so inserted it in the place, where it now stands. Ver. 10. In all this Job sinned not with his lips. The author repeats this circumstance a second time, in order to excite the attention of the reader to what follows, viz, the conduct of Job |