Expositor's Bible: The Book of Job Part 20

At present it must suffice to say that Job is now made to come very near his final discovery that complete reliance upon Eloah is not simply the fate but the privilege of man. Fully to understand Divine providence is impossible, but it can be seen that One who is supreme in power and infinite in wisdom, responsible always to Himself for the exercise of His power, should have the complete confidence of His creatures. Of this truth Job lays hold; by strenuous thought he has forced his way almost through the tangled forest, and he is a type of man at his best on the natural plane. The world waited for the clear light which solves the difficulties of faith. While once and again a flash came before Christ, He brought the abiding revelation, the dayspring from on high which giveth light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

According to his manner Job turns now from a subject which may be described as speculative to his own position and experience. The earlier part of chap. xxvii. is an earnest declaration in the strain he has always maintained. As vehemently as ever he renews his claim to integrity, emphasizing it with a solemn adjuration.

"_As G.o.d liveth who hath taken away my right, And the Almighty who hath embittered my soul; (For still my life is whole in me, And the breath of the High G.o.d in my nostrils), My lips do not speak iniquity, Nor does my tongue utter deceit.

Far be it from me to justify you; Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me.

My righteousness I hold fast, and let it not go; My heart reproacheth not any of my days._"

This is in the old tone of confident self-defence. G.o.d has taken away his right, denied him the outward signs of innocence, the opportunity of pleading his cause. Yet, as a believer, he swears by the life of G.o.d that he is a true man, a righteous man. Whatever betides he will not fall from that conviction and claim. And let no one say that pain has impaired his reason, that now if never before he is speaking deliriously. No: his life is whole in him; G.o.d-given life is his, and with the consciousness of it he speaks, not ignorant of what is a man's duty, not with a lie in his right hand, but with absolute sincerity. He will not justify his accusers, for that would be to deny righteousness, the very rock which alone is firm beneath his feet.

Knowing what is a man's obligation to his fellow-men and to G.o.d he will repeat his self-defence. He goes back upon his past, he reviews his days. Upon none of them can his conscience fix the accusation of deliberate baseness or rebellion against G.o.d.

Having affirmed his sincerity Job proceeds to show what would be the result of deceit and hypocrisy at so solemn a crisis of his life. The underlying idea seems to be that of communion with the Most High, the spiritual fellowship necessary to man's inner life. He could not speak falsely without separating himself from G.o.d and therefore from hope.

As yet he is not rejected; the consciousness of truth remains with him, and through that he is in touch at least with Eloah. No voice from on high answers him; yet this Divine principle of life remains in his soul. Shall he renounce it?

"_Let mine enemy be as the wicked, And he that riseth against me as the unrighteous._"

If I have aught to do with a wicked man such as I am now to describe, one who would pretend to pure and G.o.dly life while he had behaved in impious defiance of righteousness, if I have to do with such a man, let it be as an enemy.

"_For what is the hope of the G.o.dless whom He cutteth off, When G.o.d taketh his soul?

Will G.o.d hear his cry When trouble cometh upon him?

Will he delight himself in the Almighty And call upon Eloah at all times?_"

The topic is access to G.o.d by prayer, that sense of security which depends on the Divine friendship. There comes one moment at least, there may be many, in which earthly possessions are seen to be worthless and the help to the Almighty is alone to any avail. In order to enjoy hope at such a time a man must habitually live with G.o.d in sincere obedience.

The G.o.dless man previously described, the thief, the adulterer whose whole life is a cowardly lie, is cut off from the Almighty. He finds no resource in the Divine friendship. To call upon G.o.d always is no privilege of his; he has lost it by neglect and revolt. Job speaks of the case of such a man as in contrast to his own. Although his own prayers remain apparently unanswered he has a reserve of faith and hope.

Before G.o.d he can still a.s.sure himself as the servant of His righteousness, in fellowship with Him who is eternally true. The address closes with these words of retrospection (vv. 11, 12):--

"_I would teach you concerning the hand of G.o.d, That which is with Shaddai would I not conceal.

Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; Why then are ye become altogether vain?_"

At this point begins a pa.s.sage which creates great difficulty. It is ascribed to Job, but is entirely out of harmony with all he has said.

May we accept the conjecture that it is the missing third speech of Zophar, erroneously incorporated with the "parable" of Job? Do the contents warrant this departure from the received text?

All along Job's contention has been that though an evil-doer could have no fellowship with G.o.d, no joy in G.o.d, yet such a man might succeed in his schemes, ama.s.s wealth, live in glory, go down to his grave in peace. Yea, he might be laid in a stately tomb and the very clods of the valley might be sweet to him. Job has not affirmed this to be always the history of one who defies the Divine law. But he has said that often it is; and the deep darkness in which he himself lies is not caused so much by his calamity and disease as by the doubt forced upon him whether the Most High does rule in steadfast justice on this earth. How comes it, he has cried again and again, that the wicked prosper and the good are often reduced to poverty and sorrow?

Now does the pa.s.sage from the twelfth verse onwards correspond with this strain of thought? It describes the fate of the wicked oppressor in strong language--defeat, desolation, terror, rejection by G.o.d, rejection by men. His children are multiplied only for the sword. Sons die and widows are left disconsolate. His treasures, his garments shall not be for his delight; the innocent shall enjoy his substance.

His sudden death shall be in shame and agony, and men shall clap their hands at him and hiss him out of his place. Clearly, if Job is the speaker, he must be giving up all he has. .h.i.therto contended for, admitting that his friends have argued truly, that after all judgment does fall in this world upon arrogant men. The motive of the whole controversy would be lost if Job yielded this point. It is not as if the pa.s.sage ran, This or that may take place, this or that may befall the evil-doer. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar never present more strongly their own view than that view is presented here. Nor can it be said that the writer may be preparing for the confession Job makes after the Almighty has spoken from the storm. When he gives way then, it is only to the extent of withdrawing his doubts of the wisdom and justice of the Divine rule.

The suggestion that Job is here reciting the statements of his friends cannot be entertained. To read "Why are ye altogether vain, _saying_, This is the portion of the wicked man from G.o.d," is incompatible with the long and detailed account of the oppressor's overthrow and punishment. There would be no point or force in mere recapitulation without the slightest irony or caricature. The pa.s.sage is in grim earnest. On the other hand, to imagine that Job is modifying his former language is, as Dr. A. B. Davidson shows, equally out of the question. With his own sons and daughters lying in their graves, his own riches dispersed, would he be likely to say--"_If his children be multiplied it is for the sword_"? and

"_Though he heap up silver as the dust, And prepare raiment as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on And the innocent shall divide the silver_"?

Against supposing this to be Zophar's third speech the arguments drawn from the brevity of Bildad's last utterance and the exhaustion of the subjects of debate have little weight, and there are distinct points of resemblance between the pa.s.sage under consideration and Zophar's former addresses. a.s.suming it to be his, it is seen to begin precisely where he left off;--only he adopts the distinction Job has pointed out and confines himself now to "oppressors." His last speech closed with the sentence: "This is the portion of a wicked man from G.o.d, and the heritage appointed unto him by G.o.d." He begins here (ver. 13): "This is the portion of a wicked man with G.o.d, and the heritage of oppressors which they receive from the Almighty." Again, without verbal ident.i.ty, the expressions "G.o.d shall cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him" (chap. xx. 23), and "G.o.d shall hurl upon him and not spare" (chap. xxvii. 21), show the same style of representation, as also do the following: "Terrors are upon him.... His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath" (chap. xx. 25, 28), and "Terrors overtake him like waters" (chap. xxvii. 20). Other similarities may be easily traced; and on the whole it seems by far the best explanation of an otherwise incomprehensible pa.s.sage to suppose that here Zophar is holding doggedly to opinions which the other two friends have renounced. Job could not have spoken the pa.s.sage, and there is no reason for considering it to be an interpolation by a later hand.

XXIII.

_CHORAL INTERLUDE._

CHAP. xxviii.

The controversy at length closed, the poet breaks into a chant of the quest of Wisdom. It can hardly be supposed to have been uttered or sung by Job. But if we may go so far as to imagine a chorus after the manner of the Greek dramas, this ode would fitly come as a choral descant reflecting on the vain attempts made alike by Job and by his friends to penetrate the secrets of Divine providence. How poor and unsatisfying is all that has been said. To fathom the purposes of the Most High, to trace through the dark shadows and entanglements of human life that unerring righteousness with which all events are ordered and overruled--how far was this above the sagacity of the speakers. Now and again true things have been said, now and again glimpses of that vindication of the good which should compensate for all their sufferings have brightened the controversy. But the reconciliation has not been found. The purposes of the Most High remain untraced. The poet is fully aware of this, aware even that on the ground of argument he is unable to work out the problem which he has opened. With an undertone of wistful sadness, remembering pa.s.sages of his country's poetry that ran in too joyous a strain, as if wisdom lay within the range of human ken, he suspends the action of the drama for a little to interpose this cry of limitation and unrest. There is no complaint that G.o.d keeps in his own hand sublime secrets of Design.

What is man that he should be discontented with his place and power?

It is enough for him that the Great G.o.d rules in righteous sovereignty, gives him laws of conduct to be obeyed in reverence, shows him the evil he is to avoid, the good he is to follow. "The things of G.o.d knoweth no man, but the Spirit of G.o.d." Those who have a world to explore and use, the Almighty to adore and trust, if they must seek after the secret of existence and ever feel themselves baffled in the endeavour, may still live n.o.bly, bear patiently, find blessed life within the limit G.o.d has set.

First the industry of man is depicted, that search for the hidden things of the earth which is significant alike of the craving and ingenuity of the human mind.

"_Surely there is a mine for silver And a place for gold which they refine.

Iron is taken out of the earth, And copper is molten out of the stone.

Man setteth an end to darkness, And searcheth, to the furthest bound, The stones of darkness and deathful gloom.

He breaks a shaft away from where men dwell; They are forgotten of the foot; Afar from men they hang and swing to and fro._"

The poet has seen, perhaps in Idumaea or in Midian where mines of copper and gold were wrought by the Egyptians, the various operations here described. Digging or quarrying, driving tunnels horizontally into the hills or sinking shafts in the valleys, letting themselves down by ropes from the edge of a cliff to reach the vein, then, suspended in mid air, hewing at the ore, the miners variously ply their craft. Away in remote gorges of the hills the pits they have dug remain abandoned, forgotten. The long winding pa.s.sages they make seem to track to the utmost limit the stones of darkness, stones that are black with the richness of the ore.

On the earth's surface men till their fields, but the hidden treasures that lie below are more valuable than the harvest of maize or wheat.

"_As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; And from beneath it is turned up as by fire.

The stones thereof are the place of sapphires, And it hath dust of gold._"

The reference to fire as an agent in turning up the earth appears to mark a volcanic district, but sapphires and gold are found either in alluvial soil or a.s.sociated with gneiss and quartz. Perhaps the fire was that used by the miners to split refractory rock. And the cunning of man is seen in this, that he carries into the very heart of the mountains a path which no vulture or falcon ever saw, which the proud beasts and fierce lions have not trodden.

"_He puts forth his hand upon the flinty rock, He overturneth mountains by the roots._"

Slowly indeed as compared with modern work of the kind, yet surely, where those earnest toilers desired a way, excavations went on and tunnels were formed with wedge and hammer and pickaxe. The skill of man in providing tools and devising methods, and his patience and a.s.siduity made him master of the very mountains. And when he had found the ore he could extract its precious metal and gems.

"_He cutteth out channels among the rocks; And his eye seeth every precious thing.

He bindeth the streams that they trickle not; And the hidden thing brings he forth to light._"

For washing his ore when it has been crushed he needs supplies of water, and to this end makes long aqueducts. In Idumaea a whole range of reservoirs may still be seen, by means of which even in the dry season the work of gold-washing might be carried on without interruption. No particle of the precious metal escaped the quick eye of the practised miner. And again, if water began to percolate into his shaft or tunnel, he had skill to bind the streams that his search might not be hindered.

Such then is man's skill, such are his perseverance and success in the quest of things he counts valuable--iron for his tools, copper to fashion into vessels, gold and silver to adorn the crowns of kings, sapphires to gleam upon their raiment. And if in the depths of earth or anywhere the secrets of life could be reached, men of eager adventurous spirit would sooner or later find them out.

It is to be noticed that, in the account given here of the search after hidden things, attention is confined to mining operations. And this may appear strange, the general subject being the quest of wisdom, that is understanding of the principles and methods by which the Divine government of the world is carried on. There was in those days a method of research, widely practised, to which some allusion might have been expected--the so-called art of astrology. The Chaldaeans had for centuries observed the stars, chronicled their apparent movements, measured the distances of the planets from each other in their unexplained progress through the constellations. On this survey of the heavens was built up a whole code of rules for predicting events. The stars which culminated at the time of any one's birth, the planets visible when an undertaking was begun, were supposed to indicate prosperity or disaster. The author of the Book of Job could not be ignorant of this art. Why does he not mention it? Why does he not point out that by watching the stars man seeks in vain to penetrate Divine secrets? And the reply would seem to be that keeping absolute silence in regard to astrology he meant to refuse it as a method of inquiry. Patient, eager labour among the rocks and stones is the type of fruitful endeavour. Astrology is not in any way useful; nothing is reached by that method of questioning nature.

The poet proceeds:--

"_Where shall wisdom be found, And where is the place of understanding?

Man knoweth not the way thereof, Neither is it to be found in the land of the living.

The deep saith, It is not in me; And the sea saith, It is not with me._"

The whole range of the physical cosmos, whether open to the examination of man or beyond his reach, is here declared incapable of supplying the clue to that underlying idea by which the course of things is ordered. The land of the living is the surface of the earth which men inhabit. The deep is the under-world. Neither there nor in the sea is the great secret to be found. As for its price, however earnestly men may desire to possess themselves of it, no treasures are of any use it is not to be bought in any market.

"_Never is wisdom got for gold, Nor for its price can silver be told.

For the gold of Ophir it may not be won, The onyx rare or the sapphire stone.

Gold is no measure and gla.s.s no hire, Jewels of gold twice fined by fire.