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15. Ay, thou dost try to suffocation my breath, My bones to dissolution".

16. I am wasted-for ever I cannot live!

Desist from me, for my days are a vapour.

17. What is a poor mortal, that thou shouldst] make him of consideration,

And that thou shouldst fix thy attention on him? 18. That thou shouldst inspect him every morning, And every moment examine him?

19. Wilt thou never have done with med?

Nor let me alone, till I could swallow my spittle?

Job is here describing the afflictive symptoms of his disorder: they were such as totally deprived him of rest day and night, though his strength was exhausted by his sufferings. The disturbed sleep, broken with alarm and sudden fright, the sense of immediate suffocation, the bones as it were ready to dissolve with acute pain or extreme debility-all

signifies not only to choose,' but also to try,' and examine,' to prove,' or explore,' like the Syriac, . Schultens conceives this to be the primary meaning, "to cut in pieces, in order to take out the best," hence to choose.' In Arabic, as applied to the bones, it sometimes means," to scoop out the marrow."

Schultens, from a comparison of the Arabic, thinks that the primary meaning of л, was to dissolve,'' to macerate' in water.

"Wasted away, by running sores." See Simon in

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"How long wilt thou not avert thy countenance from me ?”

• An Arabian proverb, for an instant of time. time to breathe." SCHULTENS.

"Give me

densome to him, that he is at pains to get rid of? For so it should seem from the manner in which he is afflicting me!

Job does not mean ingenuously to confess himself a sinner, at least, not the transgressor his friends suggested in assigning the cause of his affliction. Though, as we shall have cause to remark, he would be far from denying himself to be a sinner, before God, in a comprehensive view; yet he here rather takes up the suggestion of his accuser: be it I have sinned, so as to bring this affliction upon me; yet, O Great Gcd, I cannot understand why thou dealest with me in this extraordinary way!

21. And why wilt thou not take off my transgressions,
And cause my iniquity to pass away;

Since now I am about to lie down in the dust,
And thou wilt seek me, but I am no more?

What transgression can there have been so great, and in its consequences so dangerous, that thy mercy would not spare the affliction of one so soon to die, and be here no more?

From the speech that follows, it is very evident, that Job was not understood to have made an humble confession of his sin, as the acknowledged cause of his calamity-throughout," he is righteous in his own eyes," and his friends cannot move him from that. But he seems to argue, if this were a punishment for sin, my heavenly Father would not

deal thus cruelly with me, now he has brought me to my death. But I am treated like a dangerous enemy! no, this is not chastisement for my offences. I suffer according to the inscrutable decree of God, of which no account can be given or suggested. I can only look to another world for the manifestation of His righteous judgment; and for the compensation for those sufferings which I now undeservedly endure.

SECTION III.

Bildad's Address to Job.

Chap. viii. Ver. 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuite, and said:

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2. How long wilt thou repeat these things?'

And the words of thy mouth be a violent wind ?^

3. Would El then pervert judgment?

And what, Shaddai pervert justice?

BILDAD addresses Job, under the same impressions as Eliphaz, respecting both the cause of his calamity, and the rules of divine Providence, which he insists have not, nor could have been, violated in the case of Job, as he would insinuate.

"A full, strong, and, as it were, a multitudinous wind." Mr. Good prefers the Syriac and Arabic versions; thy mouth utters the spirit of pride.'

4. Though thy children have sinned against him,

And he hath cast them away for their transgressions;

5. If thou wouldst diligently seek unto El, And make thy supplications to Shaddai;

6. If thou wert' pure and upright;

Surely now would he stand up for thee,
And prosper the abode of thy righteousness.

7. And though thy beginning were small,

Thy latter end should be exceedingly great.

He doubts not the judgment upon Job's children has been a just judgment; and if Job himself, with a pure and upright mind, will seek and pray to God, he insists upon it, by every known rule of divine Providence, he will not perish with them, as he has concluded will be the case, but God will certainly restore him to prosperity. Like the former speaker, Bildad lays down his rule too broadly, there may be exceptions; but Job's case, in a true point of view, certainly was not one of these exceptions. What Bildad says, applies very nearly to his circumstances, though he cannot receive it; Bildad, too, like the former adviser, is in darkness respecting the nature of Job's offence in the sight of Holy God.

Bildad proceeds to confirm the truth of his statement, by an appeal to the traditionary knowledge received from their forefathers-surely Job would reverence their maxims!

8. For ask now of the first generation",

And prepare to inquire of their fathers.

9. For of yesterday are' we, and know nothing; For a shadow are our days upon the earth.

Bildad makes this depreciation of himself and his cotemporaries, not under the common notion of respect for antiquity, but because the days of the present men upon earth were now so short and curtailed, in comparison of the ages of the patriarchs, perhaps of the third generation before them.

10. Will they not instruct thee, and tell thee?

And proceed not parables from their wisdom?

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He is about to quote a traditionary' saying' of these ancients, and we shall find, that the subsequent speeches of the friends, with which they urge Job, are for the most part filled with the sayings' of antiquity, maxims,' or 'parables.' The word", Mr. Good observes, signifies," short, interrupted, apophthegmatic sayings, maxims, or proverbs which constitute the common form in which the ethics of the East are communicated even in the present day."

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The book of Job, even in a literary point of

the very head generation,' speaks of their fathers :'

Or, the first generation of all -not of the human race: for he but of their own family or tribe, Jocktan and his family, the first settlers in Arabia, who, previously to the division of the earth, had been members of the one great patriarchal family, and had conversed with Shem, and perhaps with Noah.

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