A.M. 2484. posed, but as to the speaker's complete and triumphant persuasion B.C. 1520. of it at the moment of its being uttered. The word 66 STAND upon the earth," as given in our common version, is a very feeble and inadequate rendering: the Hebrew signifies, indeed, "to "to stand up,' 99 66 stand," but more correctly, mount," rise up, "ascend." It is here, and in various other places, a forensic term, and, in such instances, should be always rendered "ascend,' i.e. to the judgment-seat. It is used in the very same sense in chap. xxxi. 14, where our common lection, instead of stand, translates it rise up: "when God riseth up;" which is a better signification than the former, but still remote and inadequate. The bold and severe apostrophe of the speaker to his companions, in the lines that immediately follow, proves obviously that the whole refers to the solemn judgment of the Almighty. Heresy and idolatry adverted to CHAP. XXXI. 28, 30. For, "where, SAY YE, is the house of this mighty one? Yea, where the fixed mansion of the wicked? Lo! against the day of destruction are the wicked reserved; In the day of vengeance shall they be brought forth." CHAP. XXXI. 13, 14. If I have slighted the cause of my man-servant, or my maid-servant, What shall I do when God ASCENDETH; And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? In the last passage, , as already observed, is doubtless used forensically, ascendeth, i.e." to the tribunal or judgment-seat;" and not "riseth up,' as in our established lection. The speaker is immediately adverting to the manner in which he had conducted himself as emir or chief magistrate of Uz, and the strict justice he had uniformly endeavoured to administer at the tribunal of the gate. The passage cannot be misunderstood, and seems decisive not only of the existence of the doctrine of a future judgment at the æra before us, but of the speaker's habitual belief of it, considering that he was now debating coolly and argumentatively, and free from the influence of passion. The quotation immediately preceding it may, perhaps, admit of a different interpretation, if considered by itself; yet, as it ought not to be considered by itself, but in conjunction with collateral passages, the proper and intended sense is fixed at once. This quotation is of consequence, not only as leading to a proof of the existence of the doctrine, and the speaker's assent to it, when dispassionately arguing upon the subject, but as ascribing the same assent, as a known and admitted fact, to his companions; for he puts the words into their mouths in their own presence. The only existing heresy that occurs to us in the course of the poem is that of magic or incantation; and the only idolatry that of in the poem. Sabeism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies. The first is glanced at in chap. iii. 8, and the second in chap. xxxi. 26; and both, were additional proofs wanting, would concur in corroborating its high antiquity; for they are among the oldest subjects to be met with A.M. 2484. in history or tradition; the first being known to have been professed в.c. 1520. and practised by collegiate bodies in Egypt before the Mosaic æra; and the second being commonly referred for its origin to a date antecedent to that of Abraham; and by Maimonides to a period nearly as early as that of Seth; his son, Sabius, according to the Sabeans themselves, having invented and propagated it. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that it is of much earlier birth than either image-worship, or the deification of heroes, which have usually, and perhaps correctly, been regarded as its abominable progeny. drawn from work. The form of the poem before us, contemplated as a depository Argument of patriarchal faith, is also entitled to attention, and is almost as the arrangemuch in favour of a very early origin, as any circumstance that ment of the has yet been noticed. All the institutes of the highest antiquity, of which we have any account, were delivered in poetry, and under the shape of history, real or fictitious. Such is probably the Zendavesta, (though its actual rhythm, like that of Hebrew poetry, seems no longer to be known,) if we may judge from the Sadder, a book used by the Magi, containing an account of the laws and precepts of the Parsees, avowedly drawn up from the Zend-avesta, and written in Persian verse. Such unquestionably are the Veda, being composed in ashloks, or rather slokas, or stanzas of four lines each, the two first books of which affect an antiquity superior to that of the Mosaic æra; though their high pretensions have been greatly disturbed and controverted by various writers of the present age. Such is also the Shu King, compiled by Confucius, and perhaps the three other Kings, constituting collectively the theology of the Chinese; and such are the Orphic fragments of Greece, and the Edda of Iceland. It is, however, peculiarly worthy of remark, that Arabia has more pretensions, and especially more pretensions of very high antiquity, to such a mode of communication than any other country whatever. Its customs and manners, the agreeableness of its climate, the beauty and variety of its prospects, and, above all, the force, and richness, and elegance of its language, concurred, at a very early period, to render poetry an object of universal attraction; so that the rise of a poet in an Arabian tribe was one of the principal sources of public rejoicing; and hence, as far as almost any nation can look back through the medium of profane history, we find a sort of poetical academy instituted in this country, which, with a view of maintaining a due spirit of emulation, used annually to assemble at Ocadh, where every poet produced his best composition; and where the different tribes to which the poets belonged, waited for the award of the judges, who were appointed. to decide on their respective merits, with as much anxiety as the writers of the poems themselves. This assembly was suppressed by Mahomet, partly as interfering with his very opposite views of A.M. 2484. warfare, but chiefly because many of the poems recited on such B.C. 1520. occasions were filled with severe and appropriate sarcasms upon himself; among the principal of which were those recited by Caab Ben Zohain, whose destruction was consequently panted for by Mahomet with long and unmitigated eagerness. Commentators and of Job. There is no book in the Bible which has tempted so many critics to try their strength, and exercise their skill, as the poem before us; and hence there is none that can boast so numerous a catalogue of monographers. One of the earliest translators into a modern tongue, was the translators justly celebrated Padre Maestro Fr. Luis de Leon, of the order of St. Augustine; who rendered it into very excellent Spanish: he flourished in the sixteenth century, and composed his version between the years 1578 and 1591; the last chapter was finished in March, and in the August of the same year the learned father died, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. It was published in the year ensuing, by the unanimous consent of the university of Salamanca, with a due sense of its very great merit, and a declaration that it was written in heaven, "esté en el cielo escribiò.” It is, however, a very excellent and valuable performance: the prose and literal version is followed by an elegant rhyme translation, and accompanied with a very full and extensive exposition. It is not often that Roman Catholic universities have made so valuable a present of any part of the Scriptures in their mother tongue. The learned father does not, however, appear to have been versed in the Arabic, and other cognate dialects of the East, and hence, though he has been successful in many points, he has still left the most perplexing difficulties untouched. For the first application of the Arabic key to an illustration of the book of Job, we are indebted to the critics of Germany and Holland, and especially to the two Schultenses, Reiske, and Michaelis. In the two first, there is too large an indulgence of the imagination; in the third, too bold and dangerous an inclination to alter the sacred text. Our own country has been peculiarly rich in translators and expositors. In the foremost train of these stands the elegant and venerable Bishop Lowth, whose Prælections are an inexhaustible treasure of classical beauties. The translation of Dr. Stock, bishop of Killala, is of far inferior value: but it was composed in a season of great mental distress, and with too hurried a pen. A posthumous translation of Miss Smith, has lately been given to the public; it is a wonderful production, considering her age, and the want of proper assistance under which it was produced; but as it never received the benefit of her finishing hand, it is marred by errors which otherwise would not probably have existed. Of the version and annotations of Mr. Good, we need not speak any farther, as we have already quoted from them so largely. The English language boasts also two very excellent rhyme translations of this poem, one by Sandys, son of the archbishop of the same name, whom Dryden styles the best versifier of his age, a.m. 2484. and from whom Dr. Johnson has largely copied in his dictionary; B.C. 1520. and the other by Scott, who has also accompanied it with a very valuable running commentary. specimens of Having thus copiously dwelt on the origin, subject-matter, and Brief poetical beauties of this extraordinary composition, we feel that we excellence. ought not to close our account without offering to the reader a few examples of its high pretensions to excellence of every kind, when rendered with some portion of that taste and feeling which belong to itself; and for this purpose we must again recur to Mr. Good's execution. There has always been supposed a great difficulty in understanding the real meaning of the last verse in chap. xiii. and in connecting it with the verse which immediately precedes. In our common version, which is a pretty fair transcript of the Greek and Latin interpretations, the passage runs thus: 66 "Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly into all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet. And he as a rotten thing consumeth, as a garment that is moth-eaten." Reiske, Shultens, Grey, and Stock, have tried in various ways to make sense of this passage, but none of them have succeeded to the satisfaction of the critical world, and few of them to the satisfaction of themselves. Mr. Good seems to show very clearly that the last verse in chap. xiii. should be the first verse in chap. xiv. and that the former chapter should close with ver. 27, instead of ver. 28; and we have then, according to his interpretation, the following fearful description of the vanity and nothingness of man. CHAP. XIII. 28 Well may he dissolve as corruption, The moth-worm feeding upon him as a garment CHAP. XIV. 1 MAN-the produce of woman, Few of days, and full of trouble. 2 He springeth up as a flower, and is cut down, 3 And dost thou cast thine eyes upon such a one? And wouldst thou bring me into judgment with thyself? No one. Seeing that his days are determined, And the number of his months with thee: That thou hast fixt his bounds, and he cannot go beyond 6 O! turn from him, and leave him alone, That he may fill up his day like the hireling. 7 There is, indeed, hope for the plant, When it is cut down, that it will sprout again, 8 Though its root have grown old in the earth, 9 Through the fragrancy of water it may revive, 10 But the mortal expireth-and where is he? 12 So man lieth down, and riseth not; Till the heavens be dissolved they will not awake. Vanity of man. A.M. 2484. The following picture of the wicked man, as to the fate that B.C. 1520. awaits him, is strongly and awfully painted, in chap. xviii. and in its personifications, as they occur in Mr. Good's spirited version, may vie with the boldest attempts of Grecian poetry. Bold description of the wicked man. God of the tempest and thunderstorm. 5 The light of the wicked shall be put out, 9 The springe shall lay hold of him by the heel, 10 Its cordage lieth hid in the ground, And its snare in the path-way. 11 DEVASTATION shall terrify him all around, 12 Hunger-bitten shall be his STRENGTH, And DESTRUCTION be present at his side. 13 Gluttonously shall he feed on his skin The FIRST-BORN OF DEATH shall feed on him gluttonously. 14 His HOPE shall be up-rooted from his tent, And DISSOLUTION shall invade him as a monarch: 15 On his tent shall he fix for its extinction. Brimstone shall be rained down upon his dwelling. 16 Below shall his roots be burnt up, And above shall his branch be cut off. 17 His memory shall perish in the land, And no trace of him be in the public streets. 18 From day-light shall he be driven into darkness, 19 No son of his, no kinsman of his Shall be among his people; Yea no posterity among his sojournings. 20 At his day shall the young be astonished, 21 Surely such is the allotment of the wicked, And this the state of the unacquainted with God. The Deity has never, perhaps, been so magnificently described in the character of the God of the tempest and the thunder storm, as in the following terrific delineation, from chap xxxvi. 24, to chap. xxxvii. 5, in which we have to remark a similar error in the common division of two chapters, to that we pointed out in the last quotation but one. The first verse of chap. xxxvii. is a direct continuation, not only of the same subject, but of the same paragraph as that with which chap. xxxvi. concludes; and Mr. Good has, with equal force and correctness, given the sense of wrath to the Hebrew, 8, in both verses, which, in our common lection, is sunk into a mere particle, and rendered also. From not having attended to this error in the division of the chapter, as well as from not having hit upon the real meaning of one or two of the Hebrew terms, this passage has been found by all the commentators peculiarly doubtful and obscure, instead of peculiarly perspicuous and sublime. CHAP. XXXVI. 24 O! reflect, that thou mayst honour his dealings 25 Every mortal looketh towards him; Man gazeth afar off. |
