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THE END OF THE WICKED

He is green in the sunshine,

And his branch shooteth forth in his garden. His roots are entwined about the fountain,

He gazeth at the abundance of his shoots. (?) Yet if he destroy him from his place,

It will deny him, saying, I have not seen thee. Behold, this is the ruin of his way,

And out of the dust another groweth up.' (?)

Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man,
Neither will he help the evil doers:

Yet will he fill thy mouth with laughing,
And thy lips with rejoicing.

They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame;
And the tent of the wicked shall come to nought.

139

§ 15. The second reply of Job.-In this speech Job pushes his doubts of God's justice to the utmost limit. He opens by a sarcastic admission that God is always 'right,' but to Job's mind this is only because through his infinite power he can always win the day and do what he likes. He is resistless but unseen, and none can call him to account. If God did hearken to Job's cry, it would only be to crush him altogether. In strength he is supreme, and none can summon him before the law. Even if it were possible to do so, God would prove or assume that Job was guilty, for he mocks at justice and destroys alike the innocent and the guilty. Job is to be considered guilty even if he be innocent, so all efforts to prove his innocency are idle. Would that there were an umpire over and above both God and himself. Or let God remove the weight and pressure of his intolerable affliction, and then Job will speak his mind and plead his cause. He again appeals to God. Surely he should not desire ruthlessly to crush his own handiwork; surely the all-seeing God must know that he is guiltless. Why did he make him and hitherto preserve him for this? Whether Job acted righteously or no, God's intention was the same. He meant to crush him to the earth, to plague him without ceasing. His miseries were not intended to have any relation to his character. And if he was righteous, and bore himself as such, God meant to ruin him all the more. Would then that he had died as soon as he was born.

Then Job answered and said,

Of a truth I know that it is so :

How should man be justified before God?

If he should wish to contend with him,

He could not answer him one of a thousand.

He is wise in heart and mighty in strength:

Who hath braved him, and hath come off unharmed? Who removeth the mountains, and they know not: Who overturneth them in his anger.

Who shaketh the earth out of her place,

And the pillars thereof tremble.

Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not;
And sealeth up the stars.

[Who alone spreadeth out the heavens,

And treadeth upon the billows of the sea.
Who maketh the Pleiades, Orion, and Sirius,
And the chambers of the south.

Who doeth great things past finding out;
Yea, and wonders without number.]

Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not:
He passeth on, but I perceive him not:
Behold, he snatcheth away, who can hinder him?
Who will say unto him, 'What doest thou?'
God will not withdraw his anger;

The helpers of Rahab stooped under him:

How much less can I answer him,

And choose out my words against him?

Though I be in the right, I could not answer,

I could but make supplication unto my judge. (?)

Yea, if I called, and he answered me,

Yet would I not believe that he would hearken unto my voice.

For he sweepeth me away with a tempest;

He multiplieth my wounds without cause.

He doth not suffer me to take my breath,
He filleth me with bitterness.

Is it a question of the strength of the mighty?
Behold Him!

Is it a question of law?

Who can summon Him?

If I am righteous, his mouth would condemn me:
Though I be innocent, he would prove me perverse.
I am innocent! I regard not myself;

I despise my life.

'IT IS ALL ONE'

It is all one; therefore I say:

He destroyeth the innocent and the wicked. When his scourge slayeth suddenly,

He mocketh at the wound of the guiltless. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: He covereth the faces of the judges thereof; If not he, who then is it?

My days are swifter than a post:

They flee away, they see no good. They pass away as skiffs of reed,

As the eagle that swoopeth on its prey. If I say, 'I will forget my complaint,

I will cease my mien of sadness, and be cheerful,' Then I shudder at all my sorrows,

I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. I am to be guilty! why then labour I in vain? If I washed myself as white as snow,

And cleansed my hands with lye;

Yet wouldest thou plunge me in the mire,
And mine own clothes would abhor me.

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,
That we should go together to the judgement.

O that there were a daysman betwixt us,

That might lay his hand upon us both.

Let him take his rod away from me,
And let not his fear terrify me:
Then would I speak, and not fear him;
For in myself it is not so. (?)

My soul is weary of my life;

I will give free course to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;

Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

Is it beseeming unto thee that thou shouldest oppress,
That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands?
Hast thou eyes of flesh,

Or seest thou as man seeth?

Are thy days as the days of man,

Are thy years as man's days,

ΙΑΙ

That thou inquirest after mine iniquity,

And searchest after my sin?

Although thou knowest that I am not guilty;

And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Thine hands have fashioned and made me;

And now hast thou turned to destroy me?

Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me of clay;
And wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Didst thou not pour me out as milk,

And curdle me like cheese?

Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh,
And didst knit me with bones and sinews.

Thou didst grant me life and favour,

And thy watchful care preserved my spirit.

And yet these things didst thou hide in thine heart:

I know that this was with thee.

If I sinned, thou didst mean to mark me,

And not to acquit me from mine iniquity.

If I were wicked, woe unto me;

And if I were righteous, I was not to lift up my head,
For should I lift it up, thou wouldest hunt me as a lion,
And shew thyself ever awful towards me. (?)
Thou wouldest renew thy plagues upon me,
And increase thy rancour against me.

Wherefore then hast thou brought me into life?

Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me !

I should be as though I had not been;

I should have been carried at my birth to the grave.

Are not the days of my life few?

Look away from me, that I may take comfort a little, Before I go whence I shall not return,

To the land of darkness and the shadow of death.

'A daysman betwixt us.' Daysman is an archaic word for umpire or arbitrator. I had originally put arbitrator' into the translation, but one of my keen-eyed critics condemned the word as horribly 'prosaic.' Dr. Murray's dictionary shows that daysman was used as late as 1844 by Macaulay, so I have restored it. I wonder how my critic would like Coverdale's rendering: Neither is there any daysman to reprove both the parties or to lay his hand betwixt us'?

'THE DEPTH OF GOD'

143

Be careful to note which 'he' and 'him' refer to God and which to Job! Rahab is a mythological dragon of the ocean deep. 'Behold him,' i.e. God, who is supreme in power and above all compulsion of the law.

$16. The first speech of Zophar.-Zophar says nothing new. God's counsel and purpose are unfathomable; but always just. Repent, pray; and all may yet be well with you.

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Should not the multitude of words be answered?

And should a babbler be justified?

Should men hold their peace at thy verbiage?

And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed? For thou hast said, 'My doctrine is pure,

And I am clean in his eyes.'

But oh that God would speak,

And open his lips against thee;

And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom,

(For they are wonderful in subtlety,)

Then must thou acknowledge that God bringeth into forgetfulness for thee some of thy guilt. (?)

Canst thou find out the depth of God?

Canst thou reach to the end of the Almighty?
It is higher than heaven; what canst thou do?
Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
And broader than the sea.

If he pass by and arrest and call to judgement,
Who can hinder him?

For he knoweth men of deceit;

He recognizeth men of wickedness, though they heed it not. (?)

Yet even an empty man may be taught,

And a wild ass's colt may be caught. (?)

If thou prepare thine heart,

And stretch out thine hands toward him ;-
If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away,
And let not wickedness dwell in thy tent-
Then shalt thou lift up thy face without reproach;
Yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear:

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