4. How then is a mortal righteous before God, Or how shall one be pure that is born of woman ?t

5. Look up even unto the moon, she is not bright,

And the stars are not clean in his eyes ļu

less and invincible armies, when he waged war upon Ahriman:

"The stars are mustered as Ormuzd's armies, to make war on

Ahriman,

Who sits enthroned in darkness and in chaotic night."

Hammer. Morgenl. Kleeblat, 42. The second hemistich of our verse expresses the unconquerable might of the divine and dazzling hosts of heaven. "On whom does not his light send its beams?" is too feeble an expression.

עֵינָיו for עֵינִיהוּ,23 .as in ch. xxiv אורו for

* Vide ch. iv. 17, 18; xiv. 4; xv. 5.

u

That which is most dazzling to mortal eyes, viz. the starry host, is not pure before God. The parallelism too plainly favours the explanation

for us יָהֵל for יַאֲהִיל which we have adopted, of

to attempt to refer the form to the verb denom. to dwell, to dwell in tents. Vide Gesen. Lehrgeb. 456. All the older translators, however they may verbally differ, have expressed our meaning. Vide J. D. Michaelis in Orient, and Exeget.

6. How much less the mortal, who is corrup

tion,

And the son of man, who is a worm!

Bibl. viii. 201. The expression, which occurs only in one Cod. in Kennicott, may be considered

בְּעֵינָיו .suppl יַאֲהִיל as an improvement. Before deter ירח

from the 2d hemistich; and Ty before mines that in every thing sublunary, no object can be found which could be reckoned pure in God's eyes. The before forms the conclusion, and is undoubtedly genuine, though in several Cod. it is wanting.

CHAPTER XXVI.

JOB.

1. JOB began, and said:

2. How hast thou helped the powerless,* And supported the arm of weakness! 3. How hast thou counselled the foolish,+ And taught wisdom in fulness!"

4. Unto whom, then, availed thy revelations, And whose breath proceeded from thee?"

The meaning of the ironical exclamation is, What wretched support hast thou rendered to thy feeble and unwise colleagues! Mark the force of the juxtaposition of the neg. with the substantives, and, whereby the feeble contradiction of their meaning is expressed. Thus it is said of God, NS and DTN-N, not man, not mortal, Isaiah xxxi. 8; and of idols,

God, in Deut. xxxii. 21; and of men,

xs, not

-, not

wood, in Isaiah x. 15. Vide Gesenius Lehrgeb. 832.

W

The emphasis in the verse lies in the redupli

* Literally, powerlessness.

+ Literally, folly.

5. The shadows tremble under

The waters, and those that dwell therein.x

cation of. For whom and whence the speech? For Job was the instruction unnecessary, for he knew it already better than his instructor. The strength of inspiration in the poetical description of divine omnipotence, was not a " by (ch. xxxii. 8) or ♫ ♫, but of lowly origin; rather an empty breath of mortal lips than a divine afflatus.

* Job is fully persuaded of the almighty command of God over the realms of nature. He takes up Bildad's picture of heavenly omnipotence, and elevates it still higher. But his description touches only the surface of the unfathomable subject. The words in this verse refer to Bildad's expressions in ch. xxv. 2. Although God's throne is in the highest heavens (i), his power reaches to the depths of ocean and to the regions of the shades. Vide Psalm cxxxix. 9. A movement, a shaking before the power of God, may be predicated of the fleeting shadows (

non bixy, Isaiah xiv. 9) and the rolling waves. From this and other passages, it is evident that the inhabitants of the realms below are to be understood by D'N Vide Prov. ii. 18; ix. 18; xxi. 16; Psalm lxxxviii.

6. The regions of the dead lie bare before him,

4; Isaiah xiv. 9; xxvi. 14, 19. The derivation of the word from 7, to be loose or weak, is so evident, that we are led to think of the dwha xamóvτων of Homer. We may have some doubt as to the propriety of bringing the name of a race of Canaanitish giants (Gen. xiv. 5; xv. 20; Deut. ii. 11, 20; iii. 11) to an agreement with the name of the inhabitants of the land of shades, as J. D. Michaelis (on Lowth de Sacr. Poes. 133) and Herder (Spirit of Heb. Poet. i. 221) have done. Vide, on the opposite side, Gesen. in Dictionary. Perhaps Rephaim (the weak) is a name of derision for the giants of Canaan, to demonstrate their feebleness in comparison with the power of Jehovah. The old translators render the word elsewhere, as well as here, gigantes; only the Vulg. Prov. ii. 18, have rightly rendered it inferi, and the Vers. Venet. Vazgo. Concerning the unnecessary difficulties, vide Schultens in loco. is a tame addition, if we agree to the compression of the whole verse into one member, by Eichhorn and others. He translates, "The shadows under the seas and their monsters tremble." But AP stands in the above named places, Isaiah xiv. 9; Exod. xx. 4, as absolutely as a Sur. ii. 23; v. 70; vi. 65.

,Koran دمن