THE BOOK OF JOB
(Concluded)
Now he falls into deep despair, now he is buoyed up by new hope.
And his fifth speech he ends with words of utter despair.
Where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who shall see it?
It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,
When together we go down in the dust.
Now Bildad comes out with a rough speech which cuts deeply into Job’s heart. And Job rallies once more, gathers all the strength of his mind, and uniting heat of passion with depth of thought, he utters the following imperishable words: (9)
Yet I know that my redeemer liveth,And that he shall stand up the last upon the earth;
And through my scarred skin, - Yea, through my flesh I shall see God; And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My reins are consumed within me.—And it took a poet and a Hebraist like R. Jehuda Halevi to understand this passage rightly. He develops this passage and gives it a setting which leaves no doubt as to its real meaning:
To behold Him the eye is yearning; Through mine own parts I behold the Almighty, Through my flesh to my heart He stands revealed.
In whose hand all living abide, (10)That is, in our modern phraseology, through matter we behold force; through Creation—the Creator It is the material universe which we have at our dispos-
(9) End of Sixth speech, Chap. 19 of the book.
( (10) See "Poetry of R. Jehuda Halevi" Part II, p. 99 Ed. Ahiasaph. The Hebrew there has the real Biblical ring and force).
*The chapter of the Book of Job that received original interpretation in this article is xxvii, not xxxii, as printed in the introductory note to the first installment.
al; and through it and by it may we hope to learn the will and the power of the Almighty. It is in the language of natural phenomena that the Eternal Power speaks to us.
And this is the final, inner consolation of Job.—No sooner has he uttered those pregnant, prophetic words, than he faints from sheer exhaustion. There is a pause, and he continues in an altered tone of cold sarcasm:
If ye say, wherefore is he persecuted? Seeing that the root of the matter is in me.
Be ye afraid of the sword, If wrath bringeth the punishment of the sword;
That ye may know there is a judgment! And this sharp finale calls forth a speech from the mouth of Zophar, full of guile and insinuations. To which Job replies in his seventh speech.
Wherefore do the wicked live, Become old, yea, wax in powerf Their secd is established with tkem in their sight,
And their offspring is before their eyes,Their houses are safe from fear,Neither is the rod of God upon them.
And Eliphaz answers in his usual way of insulting accusations tempered with sanctimonious consolations.
In reply to this, Job begins his eighth and last speech in which he sums up all his previous statements. It begins with chapter XXIII. of the book. In that chapter Job describes briefly his attitude towards. the Deity, and the ignorance of his own mind. Then he begins Chapter XXIV. with the question “Wherefore,” and described in a few crisp sentences the vice and depravity existing in human society, and closes with the statement that evil does not seem to be punished in the Land of the Living. As a last thrust he asks flatly:
And if it be not so now, who willprove me a liar,