CHAPTER III.

ON THE POETICAL BOOKS.

THOUGH SOME of the Sacred Writings, which present themselves to our notice in the present chapter, are anterior in point of date to the Historical Books, yet they are usually classed by themselves under the title of the Poetical Books; because they are almost wholly composed in Hebrew verse. This appellation is of considerable antiquity. Gregory Nazianzen calls them the Fire Mitrical Books; Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, in his iambic poem addressed to Seleucus enumerates them, and gives them a similar denomination; as also do Epiphanius and Cyril of Jerusalem.' The Poetical Books are five in number, viz. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles or Song of Solomon: in the Jewish canon of Scripture they are classed among the Hagiographa, or Holy Writings; and in our Bibles they are placed between the Historical and Prophetical Books.

SECTION I.

ON THE BOOK OF JOB.

I. Title of the book.-II. Reality of Job's person.-III. Age in which he lived.-IV. Scene of the poem of Job.-V. Auther and canonical authority.-VI. Structure of the poem. VII. Argument and scope.-VIII. Spurious addition to this book in the Septuagint Version.-IX. Rules for studying this book to advantage.-X. Synopsis.—XI. Idea of the patriarchal theology, as contained in the book of Job.

1. THIS book has derived its title from the venerable patriarch Job, whose prosperity, afflictions, and restoration from the deepest adversity, are here recorded, together with his exemplary and unequalled patience under all his calamities. No book, perhaps, has more exercised the ingenuity of critics and commentators than this of Job; and though the limits Lecessarily assigned to this article prevent us from detailing all the various and discordant hypotheses which have been offered concerning it, yet a brief retrospect of the principal pinions that have been entertained respecting this portion of Scripture can at no time be either uninteresting or unimpor

tant.

II. Although this book professes to treat of a real person, yet the actual existence of the patriarch has been questioned bv many eminent critics, who have endeavoured to prove that the whole poem is a mere fictitious narration, intended to instruct through the medium of parable. This opinion was first announced by the celebrated Jewish Rabbi Maimonides, and has since been adopted by Le Clerc, Michaelis, Semler, Bishop Stock, and others. The reality of Job's existence, on the contrary (independently of its being the uniform belief of the Jewish and Christian church), has been maintained with equal ability by Leusden, Calmet, Heidegger, Carpzov, Van Til, Spanheim, Moldenhawer, Schultens, Ilgen, Archbishop Magee, Bishops Patrick, Sherlock, Lowth, Tomline, and Gray, Drs. Kennicott and Hales, Messieurs Peters and Good, Drs. Taylor and Priestley, and, in short, by almost every other modern commentator and critic.

thou fixed thy view upon my servant Job, a perfect and up right MAN?" (i. 8.) instead of aiming at the acquisition of news, is intended as a severe and most appropriate sarcasm upon the fallen spirit. "Hast THOU,-who, with superior faculties and a more comprehensive knowledge of my will, hast not continued perfect and upright,-fixed thy view upon a subordinate being, far weaker and less informed than thyself, who has continued so?"-"The attendance of the apostate at the tribunal of the Almighty is plainly designed to show us that good and evil angels are equally amenable to him, and equally subject to his authority;-a doctrine common to every part of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and, except in the mythology of the Parsees, recognised by, perhaps, every ancient system of religion whatever. The part assigned to Satan in the present work is that expressly assigned to him in the case of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and of our Saviour in the wilderness; and which is assigned to him generally, in regard to mankind at large, by all the evangelists and apostles whose writings have reached us, both in their strictest historical narratives, and closest argumentative inductions. And hence the argument which should induce us to regard all the rest in the same light which should induce us to regard the present passage as fabulous, which would sweep into nothingness a much larger portion are imbued with the same doctrine:-a view of the subject of the Bible than, we are confident, M. Michaelis would choose to part with.

"The other arguments are, comparatively, of small moment. We want not fable to tell us that good and upright men may occasionally become the victims of accumulated calamities; for it is a living fact, which, in the mystery of Providence, is perpetually occurring in every country while as to the roundness of the numbers by which the patriarch's possessions are described, nothing could have been more ungraceful or superfluous than for the poet to have descended to units, had even the literal numeration demanded it. And although he is stated to have lived a hundred and forty years after his restoration to prosperity, and in an æra in which the duration of man did not, perhaps, much exceed that of the present day, it should be recollected, that in his person as well as in his property he was specially gifted by the Almighty: that, from various passages, he seems to have been younger than all the interlocutors, except Elihu, and much younger than one or two of them that his longevity is particularly remarked, as though of more than usual extent: and that, even in the present age of the world, we have well authenticated instances of persons having lived, in different parts of the globe, to the age of a hundred and fifty, a hundred and sixty, and even a hundred and seventy years.3

"It is not necessary for the historical truth of the book of Job, that its language should be a direct transcript of that actually employed by the different characters introduced into it; for in such case we should scarcely have a single book of real history in the world. The Iliad, the Shah Nameh, and the Lusiad, must at once drop all pretensions to such a description; and even the pages of Sallust and Cæsar, of Rollin and Hume, must stand upon very questionable aure-thority. It is enough that the real sentiment be given, and the general style copied and this, in truth, is all that is aimed at, not only in our best reports of parliamentary speeches, but in many instances (which is indeed much more to the purpose), by the writers of the New Testament, in their quotations from the Old."4

The principal arguments commonly urged against the ality of Job's existence are derived from the nature of the exordium in which Satan appears as the accuser of Job; from the temptations and sufferings permitted by the Almighty Governor of the world to befall an upright character; from the artificial regularity of the numbers by which the patriarch's possessions are described, as seven thousand, three thousand, one thousand, five hundred, &c.

With regard to the first argument, the incredibility of the conversation which is related to have taken place between the Almighty and Satan, "who is supposed to return with ners from the terrestrial regions," an able commentator has remarked, Why should such a conversation be supposed incredible? The attempt at wit in the word news is somewhat out of place; for the interrogation of the Almighty, "Hast

Greg Naz. Carm. 33. v. 16. Op. tom. ii. p. 99. Paris, 1611, Epiphade Pond. et Mens. p. 533. Suicer's Thesaurus, tom. ii. voce xupe. Moreh Nevochim, part ii. sect. 22.

:

Independently of these considerations, which we think sufficiently refute the objections adduced against the reality of Job's existence, we may observe, that there is every possible evidence that the book, which bears his name, contains a literal history of the temptations and sufferings of a real character.

In the first place, that Job was a real, and not a fictitious

See Pantalogia, art. Life; and Encyclopædia Britannica, art. Lon-
gevity.
Dr. Good's Introductory Dissertation to his version of Job, pp. xv.—
Atonement, vol. ii. pp. 49-53. Dr. Gregory's translation of Bishop Lowth's
Lectures, vol. ii. pp. 358-370. in notes.

xvii. See also Archbishop Magee's Discourses and Dissertations on the

character, may be inferred from the manner in which he is
mentioned in the Scriptures. Thus, the prophet Ezekiel
speaks of him:-Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and
Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their
righteousness, saith the Lord God. (Ezek. xiv. 14.) In this
passage the prophet ranks Noah, Daniel, and Job, together,
as powerful intercessors with God; the first for his family;
the second for the wise men of Babylon; and the third for
his friends: now, since Noah and Daniel were unquestionably
real characters, we must conclude the same of Job. Behold,
says the apostle James, we count them happy which endure :
ye
have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of
the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
(James v. 11.) It is scarcely to be believed that a divinely
inspired apostle would refer to an imaginary character as an
example of patience, or in proof of the mercy of God.2 But,
besides the authority of the inspired writers, we have the
strongest internal evidence, from the book itself, that Job
was a real person: for it expressly specifies the names of
persons, places, facts, and other circumstances usually related
in true histories. Thus we have the name, country, piety,
wealth, &c. of Job described (ch. i.); the names, number,
and acts of his children are mentioned; the conduct of his
wife is recorded as a fact (i.); his friends, their names,
countries, and discourses with him in his afflictions, are mi-
nutely delineated. (ii. 11. &c.). And can we rationally
imagine that these were not realities?

Further, no reasonable doubt can be entertained respecting the real existence of Job, when we consider that it is proved by the concurrent testimony of all eastern tradition: he is mentioned by the author of the book of Tobit, who lived during the Assyrian captivity; he is also repeatedly mentioned by Mohammed as a real character. The whole of his history, with many fabulous additions, was known among the Syrians and Chaldæans; many of the noblest families among the Arabians are distinguished by his name, and boast of being descended from him. So late even as the end of the fourth century, we are told, that there were many persons who went into Arabia to see Job's dunghill, which, in the nature of things, could not have subsisted through so many ages; but the fact of superstitious persons making pilgrimages to it sufficiently attests the reality of his exist ence, as also do the traditionary accounts concerning the place of Job's abode."

are noticed in Job i. 15. &c.; and others, with Nebuchadnez zar, because the Chaldæans are introduced in Job i. 17. Lastly, some state him to have lived in the time of Jacob, whose daughter Dinah they suppose him to have married: and this conjecture they ground upon the resemblance be tween the expression in Job ii. 10. (thou speakest like a foolish woman) and that in Gen. xxxiv. 7. (- -hath wrought folly in [more correctly against] Israel.) The puerility of these conjectures sufficiently indicates their weakness; one thing, however, is generally admitted with respect to the age of Job, viz. the remote antiquity of the period when he must have lived. Even those who contend for the late production of the book of Job, are compelled to acquiesce in this particular. Grotius thinks the events of the history are such as cannot be placed later than the sojourning of the Israel ites in the Wilderness. Bishop Warburton, in like manner, admits them to bear the marks of high antiquity; and Michaelis confesses the manners to be perfectly Abrahamic, that is, such as were common to all the seed of Abraham, Israelites, Ishmaelites, and Idumæans.10 The following are the principal circumstances from which the age of Job may be collected and ascertained:"—

1. The Usserian, or Bible chronology, dates the trial of Job about the year 1520 before the Christian æra, twentynine years before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt; and that the book was composed before that event, is evident from its total silence respecting the miracles which accom panied the exode: such as the passage of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Egyptians, the manna in the desert, &c.; all of which happened in the vicinity of Job's country, and were so apposite in the debate concerning the ways of Providence, that some notice could not but have been taken of them, if they had been coeval with the poem of Job. 2. That it was composed before Abraham's migration to Canaan may also be inferred, from its silence respecting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain, which were still nearer to Idumæa, where the scene is laid.

3. The length of Job's life places him in the patriarchal times. He survived his trial one hundred and forty years (xlii. 16.), and was probably not less than sixty or seventy at that time: for we read that his seven sons were all grown up, and had been settled in their own houses for a considerable time. (i. 4, 5.) He speaks of the sins of his youth" (xiii. 26.), and of the prosperity of "his youth;" and yet Eliphaz addresses him as a novice:-" With us are both the very aged, much elder than thy father." (xv. 10.)

4. That he did not live at an earlier period may be collected from an incidental observation of Bildad, who refers Job to their forefathers for instruction in wisdom:

Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,

And prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:

Assigning as a reason, the comparative shortness of life and
consequent ignorance of the present generation:

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing
Because our days upon earth are a shadow).

III. Since, then, the book of Job contains the history of a real character, the next point to be considered is the age in which he lived, a question concerning which there is as great a diversity of opinion, as upon any other subject connected with this venerable monument of sacred antiquity. Thus, some think that he lived in the days of Moses, from a supposed resemblance between the style of Moses and that of Job; others in the time of the Judges, from an expression in Job xxvii. 12., because at that time all was vanity, and every man did that which was good in his own eyes. Others, again, refer him to the time of Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes Longimanus, on account of the search then made for beautiful women, from whom the monarch might select a consort (Esth. ii. 2. &c.), and because Job's daughters are mentioned But the "fathers of the former age," or grandfathers of the (Job xlii. 15.) as being the fairest in the whole land. Some present, were the contemporaries of Peleg and Joktan, in the make him to have been contemporary with Solomon and the fifth generation after the deluge: and they might easily have queen of Sheba, if not Solomon himself, because the Sabeans learned wisdom from the fountain-head by conversing with To evade the strong proof afforded by Ezekiel's express recognition of Shem, or perhaps with Noah himself; whereas, in the seventh the reality of Job's person, Jahn remarks that fictitious personages may be generation, the standard of human life was reduced to about brought upon the stage along with real; as is evident from Luke xvi. 19-two hundred years, which was a shadow compared with 31., where Aoraham is introduced with the fictitious characters Lazarus the longevity of Noah and his sons. and the rich man. But there is an evident difference between a parable expressly purporting to be fictitious, and a solemn rebuke or warning to a whole nation. Besides, in Luke, the circumstances predicated of all the characters are fictitious; in Ezekiel they are unquestionably true with relation to Noah and Daniel, and might be reasonably expected to be so in the other instance associated with these two. (Prof. Turner's translation of Jalin, p. 467. note.)

Elements of Christian Theology, vol. i. p. 94.

Tobit ii. 12. in the Vulgate version, which is supposed to have been executed from a more extended history of Tobit than the original of the Greek version.

4 Sale's Koran, pp. 271. 375. 4to. edit. See also D'Herbelot's Bibliothèque Orientale, voce Aib, tom.i. p. 145. 4to edit.

As the father of the celebrated Sultan Saladin (Elmancin, Hist. Saracen. p. 3.); and also Saladin himself, whose dynasty is known in the East by the name of Aiubiah or Jobites. D'Herbelot, tom. i. pp. 146, 147. 6 Chrysostom. ad pop. Antioch. Hom. 5. Op. tom. ii. p. 59. A. Thevenot's Voyage, p. 417. La Roque, Voyages en Syrie, tom. i. p. 239. Staeudlin (a modern German critic, who plainly disbelieves any inspiration of the Old Testament), takes a middle course. Conceiving that he has discovered in the book of Job phrases, sentiments, and pictures of manners which belong to a later date, and that its composition is more elaborate and exquisite than that of the generality of the other Hebrew books, he does not ascribe to it such a remote antiquity as many scholars of the present day suppose: but since it exhibits other indubitable marks of a

5. The general air of antiquity which pervades the manners recorded in the poem, is a further evidence of its remote date. The manners and customs, indeed, critically corres

venerable antiquity, he is led to suppose that it was composed by some Hebrew author of a lower age, perhaps by Solomon himself, out of certain very ancient remains of poetry, history, and philosophy, to which that a thor added some things of his own, and had thrown the whole into its present practical form and arrangement.-Staendlin's Theol. Moralis Hebreo rum ante Christum Hist. (Gotting. 1794,) cited in Dr. Sinith's Scripture Testimony of the Messiah, vol. i. p. 210.

Mercerus, Præf. ad Job. The Bishop of Killala (Dr. Stock), after Bishop Warburton, rofers the time of Job to that of Ezra, whom he sup poses to be its author. (Preface to his translation of Job, pp. v. vi.) His arguments are very largely examined and refuted by Archbishop Magee, Discourses, vol. ii. pp. 87-154. See also British Critic, vol. xxix. O. S. pp. 369-372. 10 Grotius, Præf. ad Job. Warburton's Divine Legation, book vi. sect. 2. Michaelis, Notæ et Epimetra in Lowthii Prælectiones, p. ISI. Magee, vol. ii. p. 57.

These observations are digested from the united remarks of Dr. Hales, in his Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. book i. pp. 55-59. and of Archbishop Magee, in his Discourses, vol. ii. pp. 58-63.

have occasionally infested the defenceless country of Idumæa, and roved from the Euphrates even to Egypt.3

To the preceding considerations we may add, that "the contents of the book, and the customs which it introduces, agree with the opinion, that Idumaa was the country of Job's friends. Idumæa, in the earliest ages, was distinguished for its wise men, and sentences of Arabian wisdom flow from the mouths of Job and his friends. The Jordan is represented as a principal stream, as it was to the Edomites; and chiefs, such as those of Edom, are frequently mentioned. The addition, which is found at the end of the Septuagint version, places Job's residence on the confines of Idumæa and Arabia.” V. The different parts of the book of Job are so closely connected together, that they cannot be detached from each other. The exordium prepares the reader for what follows, supplies us with the necessary notices concerning Job and his friends, unfolds the scope, and places the calamities full in our view as an object of attention. The epilogue, or conclusion, again, has reference to the exordium, and relates the happy termination of Job's trials; the dialogues which intervene flow in regular order. Now, if any one of these parts were to be taken away, the poem would be extremely defective. Without the prologue the reader would be ut terly ignorant who Job was, who were his friends, and the cause of his being so grievously afflicted. Without the discourse of Elihu (xxxii.-xxxvii.), there would be a sudden and abrupt transition from the last words of Job, to the address of God, for which Elihu's discourse prepares the reader. And without the epilogue or conclusion, we should remain in ignorance of the subsequent condition of Job. Hence it is evident, that the poem is the composition of a which the learned are very much divided in their sentiments. Elihu, Job, Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, an anonymous writer in the reign of Manasseh, Ezekiel, and Ezra, have all been contended for. The arguments already adduced respecting the age of Job, prove that it could not be either of the latter persons. Dr. Lightfoot, from an erroneous version of xxxii. 16, 17., has conjectured that it is the production of Elihu: but the correct rendering of that passage refutes this notion. Ilgen ascribes it probably to a descendant of Elihu. Lother, Grotius, and Doederlein, are disposed to regard it as the production of Solomon; Cellerier considers it as the production of an unknown author. Another and more generally received opinion attributes this book to Moses; this conjec ture is founded on some apparently striking coincidences of sentiment, as well as from some marks of later date which are supposed to be discoverable in it. But, independently of the characters of antiquity already referred to, and which place the book of Job very many centuries before the time of Moses, the total absence of every the slightest allusion to the manners, customs, ceremonies, or history of the Israelites, is a direct evidence that the great legislator of the He brews was not, and could not have been, the author. To which may be added, that the style of Job (as Bishop Lowth has remarked) is materially different from the poetical style of Moses; for it is much more compact, concise or condensed, more accurate in the poetical conformation of the sentences: as may be observed also in the prophecies of Balaam the Mesopotamian, a foreigner, indeed, with respect to the Israelites, but not unacquainted either with their language or with the worship of the true God.

writers; Michaelis, Ilgen, and Jahn, place the scene in the valley of Damascus; but Bishop Lowth and Archbishop Magee, Dr. Hales, Dr. Good, and some later critics and philologers, have shown that the scene is laid in Idumæa. That the land of Uz, or Gnutz (Job i. 1.), is evidently Idumæa, appears from Lam. iv. 21. Uz was the grandson of Seir the Horite. (Gen. xxxvi. 20, 21. 28.; 1 Chron. i. 38. 42.) Seir inhabited that mountainous tract which was called by his name antecedent to the time of Abraham, but, his posterity being expelled, it was occupied by the Idumæans. (Deut. ii. 12.) Two other men are mentioned of the name of Uz; one the grandson of Shem, the other the son of Nachor, the brother of Abraham; but whether any district was called after their name is not clear. Idumæa is a part of Arabia Petræa, situate on the southern extremity of the tribe of Judah (Num. xxxiv. 3. Josh. xv. 1. 21.): the land of Uz, therefore, appears to have been between Egypt and Philistia (Jer. xxv. 20.), where the order of the places seems to have been accurately observed in reviewing the different nations from Egypt to Babylon; and the same people seem again to be described in exactly the same situations. (Jer. xlvi.-1.) Nor does the statement of the inspired writer, that Job was the greatest of all the men of the East (Job i. 3.), militate against the situation of the land of Uz. The expressions, men of the East, children of the East, or Eastern people, seems to have been the general appellation for that mingled race of people (as they are called, Jer. xxv. 20.) who inhabited the country between Egypt and the Euphrates, bordering upon Judæa from the south to the east; the Idumæans, the Amalekites, the Midianites, the Moabites, the Ammonites (see Judg. vi. 3. and Isa. xi. 14.); of these the Idumæans and Amalekites certainly possessed the south-single AUTHOR, but who that was, is a question concerning ern parts. (See Num. xxxiv. 3. xiii. 29.; 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. 10.) This appears to be the true state of the case: the whole region between Egypt and the Euphrates was called the East, at first in respect to Egypt (where the learned Joseph Mede thinks the Israelites acquired this mode of speaking),' ,' and afterwards absolutely and without any relation to situation or circumstances. Abraham is said to have sent the sons of his concubines, Hagar and Keturah, "eastward to the country which is commonly called the East" (Gen. xxv. 6.), where the name of the region seems to have been derived from the same situation. Solomon is reported "to have excelled in wisdom all the Eastern people, and all Egypt" (1 Kings iv. 30.): that is, all the neighbouring people in that quarter: for there were people beyond the boundaries of Egypt, and bordering on the south of Judæa, who were famous for wisdom, namely, the Idumæans (see Jer. xlix. 7.; Obad. 8.), to whom we may well believe this passage might have some relation. Thus JEHOVAH addresses the Babylonians: "Arise, ascend unto Kedar, and lay waste the children of the East" (Jer. xlix. 28.), notwithstanding these were really situated to the west of Babylon. Although Job, therefore, be accounted one of the Orientals, it by no means follows that his residence must be in Arabia Deserta. In effect, nothing is clearer than that the history of an inhabitant of Idumæa is the subject of the poem which bears the name of Job, and that all the persons introduced into it were Idumæans, dwelling in Idumæa, in other words, Edomite Arabs. These characters are, Job himself, of the land of Uz; Eliphaz of Teman, a district of as much repute as Uz, and which, it appears from the joint testimony of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Obadiah, formed a principal part Upon the whole, then, we have sufficient ground to conof Idumæa; Bildad of Shuah, who is always mentioned include that this book was not the production of Moses, but of conjunction with Sheba and Dedan, the first of whom was probably named after one of the brothers of Joktan or Kahtan, and the last two from two of his sons, all of them being uniformly placed in the vicinity of Idumæa (Gen. xxv. 2, 3.; Jer. xlix. 8.); Zophar of Naama, a city importing pleasantness, which is also stated by Joshua (xv. 21. 41.) to have been situate in Idumæa, and to have lain in a southern direction towards its coast, on the shores of the Red Sea; and Elihu of Buz, which, as the name of a place, occurs only once in sacred writ (Jer. xxv. 23.), but is there mentioned in conjunction with Teman and Dedan; and hence, necessarily, like them, a border city upon Uz or Idumæa. Allowing this chorography to be correct (and such, upon a fair review of facts, we may conclude it to be), there is no difliculty in conceiving that hordes of nomadic Chaldeans as well as Sabeans, a people addicted to rapine, and roving about at immense distances for the sake of plunder,-should

some earlier age. Bishop Lowth favours the opinion of
Schultens, Peters, and others (which is also adopted by

Bishop Lowth's Lectures, vol. ii. pp. 347-351. Good's Introd. Diss. to
Job, pp. ii.—xi.
See a translation of this addition in pp. 234, 235. note, infra.
Prof. Turner's translation of Jahn, p. 471. note.
See § III. pp. 228-230. of this volume.

* See Good's translation of Job, in loc. pp. 380, 381. Bishop Lowth, taking the passage in question as it stands in our English Bibles, observes that this conjecture of Lightfoot's seems at first sight rather countenanced by the exordium of the first speech of Elihu (xxxii. 15, 16.), in which he seems to assume the character of the author, by continuing the narrative in his own person. But that passage which appears to interrupt the speech of Eliliu, and to be a part of the narrative, the Bishop conceives to be nothing more than an apostrophe to Job, or possibly to himself: for it manifestly consists of two distichs; while, on the contrary, it is well known that all the narrative parts-all in which the author himself appears-are certainly written in prose. Lecture xxxii. vol. ii. p. 352.

Introduction à la Lecture des Livres Saints (Ancien Testament), p. 499. Dr. Good, who adopts this hypothesis, has collected these seeming con cidences. Introd. Diss. pp. lvi.-Ixii. Archbishop Magee has examined and refuted at considerable length the arguments of Huet, Dr. Kennicott, Heath, Bishop Warburton, and others who have advocated the same notion. Discourses on the Atonement, vol. ii. pp. 63-80.

Bishop Tomline and Dr. Hales), who suppose Job himself, or some contemporary, to have been the author of this poem: and there seems to be no good reason for supposing that it was not written by Job himself. It appears, indeed, highly probable that Job was the writer of his own story, of whose inspiration we have the clearest evidence in the forty-second chapter of this book, in which he thus addresses the Almighty-"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee." (xlii. 5.) It is plain that in this passage some privilege is intended which he never had enjoyed before, and which he calls the sight of God.

canon of the Jewish Scriptures on any other supposition than that it was written by a Hebrew; since the language is He brew, and it is written in the style of Hebrew poetry. "The Hebrews were jealous of their religious prerogatives. Would they have admitted into their sacred volume a poem written by a foreigner? The supposition that the [original] author travelled or resided a considerable time in Arabia will account for the Arabian images and words contained in it."3 The poem of Job being thus early introduced into the sacred volume, we have abundant evidence of its subsequent recognition as a canonical and inspired book, in the circumHe had heard of him by the "hearing of the ear," or the stance of its being occasionally quoted or copied by almost tradition delivered down to him from his forefathers, but he every Hebrew writer who had an opportunity of referring to now had a clear and sensible perception of his being and di- it, from the age of Moses to that of Malachi; especially by vine perfections, some light thrown in upon his mind which the Psalmist, by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (not to mencarried its own evidence, and of which, perhaps, we can tion several of the apocryphal writers). The reality of Job's form no notion, because we have never felt it, but which to person, we have already remarked, was particularly recog him had all the certainty and clearness even of sight itself-nised by the prophet Ezekiel (xiv. 14. 18. 20.), and, consesome manifestations of the Deity made to him in vision, quently, the reality and canonical authority of his book: a such as the prophets had, and from which they derived their similar admission of it was made by the apostle James (v. very name of seers. If we allow Job himself to have 11.); and it is expressly cited by St. Paul (compare 1 Cor. been the writer of the book, two important advantages will iii. 19. and Job v. 13.), who prefaces his quotation by the be evidently obtained :-First, all objections to historical words, "It is written," agreeably to the common form of truth will vanish at once: no one could tell us his own story quoting from other parts of Scripture. All these testimonies, so well as Job, nor have we any reason to question its vera- direct and collateral, when taken together, afford such a body city. The dialogue, too, will then appear to have been the of convincing evidence as fully justifies the primitive fathers substance of a real conversation, for no dialogue was ever and early councils in their reception of it as an inspired book: more natural. If the story be told us in verse, or in the and,-independently of its completing the Jewish and Chrisprophetic style and language, as the first of these was a prac- tian canons of Scripture, by uniting as full an account as is tice of the highest antiquity, the other adds the most sacred necessary of the patriarchal dispensation, with the two other and unquestionable authority to it: so that neither truth nor dispensations by which it was progressively succeeded,― ornament is here wanting, any more than dignity of subject, the enrolment of the history of Job in the sacred volume may, to render this a book of inestimable value. The second ad- perhaps, have been designed as an intimation of the future vantage alluded to is this, that if Job himself were the admission of the Gentiles into the church of Christ. writer of the book, then every point of history and every doctrine of religion here treated of, which coincide with those delivered in the books of Moses, are an additional proof and confirmation of the latter, as being evidently derived from some other source, not borrowed from the Pentateuch.1

VI. All commentators and critics are unanimously agreed, that the poem of Job is the most ancient book extant: but concerning its species and structure there is a considerable diversity of opinion, some contending that it is an epic poem, while others maintain it to be a drama.

M. Ilgen on the Continent, and Dr. Good in our own But whether we suppose Job the author of the book, or country, are the only two commentators that have come to not, its great antiquity, and even its priority to the age of the writer's knowledge, who advocate the hypothesis that Moses, seems to stand on strong grounds. And, upon the the book of Job is a regular epic. The former critic contends whole, perhaps we may not unreasonably conjecture the his- that it is a regular epic, the subject of which is tried and tory of the book to be this:-The poem, being originally victorious innocence; and that it possesses unity of action, written either by Job, or some contemporary of his, and ex- delineation of character, plot, and catastrophe,—not exactly, isting in the time of Moses, might fall into his hands, whilst indeed, in the Grecian, but in the Oriental style. Dr. Good residing in the land of Midian, or afterwards when in the observes, that, were it necessary to enter minutely into the neighbourhood of Idumæa; and might naturally be made use question, this poem might easily be proved to possess all the of by him, to represent to the Hebrews, either whilst re- more prominent features of an epic, as laid down by Arispining under their Egyptian bondage, or murmuring at their totle himself, such as unity, completion, and grandeur in its long wanderings in the wilderness, the great duty of submis- action; loftiness in its sentiments and language; multitude sum to the will of God. The encouragement which this book and variety in the passions which it developes. Even the holds out, that every good man suffering patiently will finally characters, though not numerous, are discriminated and well be rewarded, rendered it a work peculiarly calculated to supported; the milder and more modest temper of Eliphaz minister mingled comfort and rebuke to the distressed and (compare Job iv. 2, 3. with xv. 3.) is well contrasted with discontented Israelites, and might, therefore, well have been the forward and unrestrained violence of Bildad; the terseemployed by Moses for this purpose. We may also sup-ness and brevity of Zophar with the pent-up and overflowing pose, that Moses, in transcribing, might have made some fulness of Elihu: while in Job himself we perceive a digsmall and unimportant alterations, which will sufficiently nity of mind that nothing can humiliate, a firmness that noaccount for occasional and partial resemblances of expression thing can subdue, still habitually disclosing themselves between it and the Pentateuch, if any such there be. amidst the tumult of hope, fear, rage, tenderness, triumph, and despair, with which he is alternately distracted. This hint is offered by Dr. Good, not with a view of ascribing any additional merit to the poem itself, but merely to observe, so far as a single fact is possessed of authority, that mental taste, or the internal discernment of real beauty, is the same

"This hypothesis both furnishes a reasonable compromise between the opinions of the great critics, who are divided upon the point of Moses being the author; and supplies an answer to a question of no small difficulty, which hangs upon almost every other solution; namely, when, and wherefore, a book treating manifestly of the concerns of a stranger, and in no way connected with their affairs, was received by the Jews into their sacred canon? For Moses having thus applied the book to their use, and sanctioned it by his authority, it would naturally have been enrolled among their sacred writings: and from the antiquity of that enrolment, no record would consequently appear of its introduction."2 Indeed, it is difficult to account for its introduction into the 1 Peters' Critical Dissertation on Job, p. 123. et seq.

* Magee's Discourses, vol. ii. p. 82. This notion, Archbishop Magee remarks, is not without support from many respectable authorities. The cient commentator on Job, under the title of Origen, has handed down a Pece of traditional history, which perfectly accords with it. See Patrick's Preface to Job. Many of the most respectable early writers seem to have adopted the same idea, as may be seen in Huet (Dem. Evang. p. 326.), and, with some slight variation, it has been followed by that learned author. Parick also and Peter speak of it as a reasonable hypothesis. (Crit. Diss. Pref pp. xxxiv. xxxv.) And certainly it possesses this decided advantage, that it solves all the phenomena. Ibid. pp. 83, 84.

United States' Review and Literary Gazette, vol. ii. p. 343. Huet, Demonstr. Evang. tom. i. pp. 324, 325., and Dr. Good, in the notes to his version of Job, have pointed out numerous instances of passages

thus directly copied or referred to.

See p. 228. supra, of this volume.

As Job lived so many ages before the time of the prophet Ezekiel, mere oral tradition of such a person could not have subsisted through so long a period of time, without appearing at last as uncertain or fabulous. There must, therefore, have been some history of Job in Ezekiel's time; no other history but that which we now have, and which has always had a place in the Hebrew code, was ever heard of or pretended. Therefore this must have been the history of Job in Ezekiel's time, and must have been generally known and read as true and authentic, and, consequently, must have been written near to [rather in] the age when the fact was transacted, and not in after-times, when its credibility would have been greatly dimi nished. Dr. Taylor's Scheme of Scripture Divinity, ch. 22. in fine, (in Bishop Watson's Collection of Tracts, vol. i. p. 93.)