capable of converting words and formulas of benediction to its own evil and malignant use. More particularly, we may say of this Hebrew word that its original meaning is "to bend the knee," to kneel in prayer, for example: so that it would easily lend itself to a double and ambiguous sense, since if men kneel when they implore a blessing, they may also kneel to invoke a solemn and deliberate curse. But, most probably, the full explanation of the word as used in this Prologue is to be found in the fact that the subjects and courtiers of ancient Eastern princes knelt to them, not only when they entered their presence, but also when they left it, even though they left it in anger and cherishing treasonable designs against them in their hearts. Hence the word for "kneel" came easily and naturally to contain the double meaning of saluting a person, especially a superior, both on meeting him and in parting with him, both on giving him up or renouncing him, and on welcoming him and wishing him good speed. We can hardly suppose that even the Adversary thought to drive Job to an extremity in which, like an angry drab, he would "unpack his heart with words" of cursing and blasphemy; still less can we suppose Job to have suspected his sons (for the same word is used, Chap. i. 5) of a sin so exceptional and so alien to all the habits in which they had been nurtured: but Job may well have feared that his sons, in their mirth and gaiety, would "take leave" of God, forget Him, renounce Him, by preferring their own ways to His, by taking "the primrose path of dalliance" rather than "the steep and thorny way to heaven;" and Satan may easily have persuaded himself that, when Job was stripped of all he had gained by serving God, he would revolt from his service, and at least tacitly renounce Him. But his hope is defeated. Job does, indeed, utter the very word that Satan had set himself to force from his lips, but he uses it in the good sense, not in the bad, in the very opposite sense, that is, to that in which the Adversary had predicted he would use it. So far from "taking leave of God, or renouncing Him, he flies to God, not from Him, and renews his homage. "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God with wrong." THE Second Trial of Job was probably divided from the First by a considerable interval. The Targum places a full year between them; other authorities place a month neither the one assumption nor the other, however, has any more solid foundation than the conjecture that the Poet conceived of the heavenly Cabinet as meeting at stated and regular intervals. But though we cannot pretend to determine dates, it is surely reasonable to infer from what we know of the moral history and experience of man that the first temptation would be allowed time to work, to develop its force and bitterness, to accumulate its full weight; and that the heart of Job, rocking to and fro under so amazing a stress of misfortune, would be long before it regained its poise, and so far adjusted itself to its new condition as to be able to say, Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken; Whatever the interval, we may be sure that the second temptation came soon enough; for, in some respects, it was far more searching and penetrating than the first. Mere physical health does more to sustain the spirit than we suspect until our health is seriously impaired. The calamities which had already befallen Job were only too likely to expose him to the suspicion and scorn of the tribes, as a man smitten by God for his sins; but it was barely possible that they might see unparalleled misfortune in them rather than unparalleled guilt. When, however, the very person of Job was invaded by a rare and monstrous form of disease, which made him loathsome to all who saw him as well as to himself, his monstrous guilt would be assumed as past all doubt. And, in any case, the loss of health was an additional trial; it came on the back of all other losses, all other causes for wonder, and sorrow, and resentment. If, in this second trial, God's eulogy of the afflicted Patriarch is warmer and his pity for him more profound, on the other hand, the malignity of Satan is sharpened against him by a sense of failure, and he strikes, the very moment he gets permission, with his utmost force. This Trial is recorded in Chapter ii., Verses 1-10. Verses 1-3 are, for the most part, a repetition of Chapter i. Verses 6-8, and call for little remark. But it should be observed that Verse 3 ends with a new phrase, in which Jehovah complains, with a touch of indignant reproach, of the malice of Satan in instigating Him to afflict Job "without cause," and speaks of his faithful servant with even more than his former love and pride. Satan had affirmed that the integrity of Job was bound up with his gains, and that when the gains were taken away he would fling his integrity after them. And, now, Jehovah calls on the Adversary to mark, and to confess, that, although all that he had has been taken away from this perfect man," he still holds fast his integrity," his whole-hearted devotion to God, and will not let it go. Here already, then, the professed zeal of Satan for the honour of God is detected and exposed. He had affected to believe that Job was imposing on the generous credulity of Jehovah, and to be indignant that the imposture should succeed. But now, in that "thou didst move me against him without cause"-a phrase in which a rueful pity for the sufferings of his servant and pride in his constancy are strangely blended-the real hypocrite is unmasked. It was not the honour of the King of Heaven for which Satan was eager, but the destruction and disgrace of the perfect man whose disinterested fidelity was a standing rebuke to his own infidelity and selfishness. The charge alleged against Job had been proved to be untrue, and therefore it recoiled on the head of him who had advanced it. Verse 4.-This challenge to confess his malice only exasperated the malice of Satan. He had been content before to charge Job with impiety; now he charges him also with utter inhumanity. He implies that Job really cared for no one but himself, not even for his sons and daughters; and that so long as he walked in a whole skin the genuine nature of the man would never be revealed. The proverb in which this atrocious insinuation is conveyed-as if the very devil himself were a little ashamed of it, and did not choose to be considered the author of it-" Satan's old saw," as Browning, with the quick insight of a poet, calls it, has long been dis cussed by scholars; but as yet they are able to agree only in its general import: and that, by the way, is determined for them by the context. "A skin for a skin" (or, as it might be even more literally rendered, "Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, he will give for his life") bears some resemblance, however, to other proverbs which may help us to explain it. Thus, for example, the Jews have a saying, "One gives one's skin to save one's skin-i.e. gives a part to save the rest, "but all to save one's life," which very closely resembles that here quoted. Possibly, "A skin for a skin," in the sense of "A hide for a hide," was an Arab proverb in the time of Job, familiar to the lips of their traders, and was used by the literati to point the selfishness of men who only give when they expect to receive a full equivalent. Perhaps, "Give a hide to catch a hide" would convey its sense to an English ear; or the rural proverb, "Give an apple to him that has an orchard;" or, even the vulgar saying, " Give a sprat to catch a herring." Satan, who, in his self-absorption, can recognize nothing unselfish in the whole round of human motives, meant that Job's piety was purely selfish, a mere barter of one good thing against another and a better; nay, that his very humanity extended only to himself; that he cared little for the loss of his children; that so long as health was left him, if he believed he owed it to God, he would affect to serve Him. Take away that, so that he shall account his very life to be gone from him, and his assumed piety will open and disclose his real and utter selfishness." It is edifying to hear this pious devil declaiming on the impiety of man, this humane devil, who only longed to do Job harm, declaiming on the inhumanity of man; or, in one word, this disinterested devil declaiming on the selfishness of man! 66 Verses 5, 6.-For the greater good and glory of his servant Job, Jehovah permits even this issue to be raised and tried. Satan is authorized so to "touch" Job that he shall account death better than such a life as his (Chap. vii. 15), in order that the trial may be complete; but he is not allowed to take life itself, in order that, if Job should stand the trial, his faith and patience may receive a due reward. Verse 7.-The foul disease with which Job was smitten, and of which he himself details many of the symptoms, was clearly elephantiasis, the severest and most terrible form of leprosy. Beginning with "grievous ulcers," it eats, like a cancer, through the whole body, swelling the limbs, especially at the joints, into monstrous lumps, till they resemble the limbs of an elephant (whence its name), and even causing them to rot off piecemeal. Verse 8.-These ulcers were too loathsome and fetid to be touched. Hence the use of the "potsherd," or piece of broken earthenware, to remove the feculent discharge. Rosenmüller says (in loco) that Orientals sometimes used an instrument for this purpose shaped like the hand, and made of ivory. For "ashes" the Septuagint reads " dung." The two words mean the same thing. It is as correct as it is usual to speak of Job's "dunghill," although that unsavoury word is not once employed either in the Original or in our Authorized Version; for, from many of the allusions of this Story, it is quite certain that we are to conceive of the Patriarch as lying on what "the Sons of the East" call the mezbele: this, indeed, is the very scene of the Poem. It is necessary, therefore, that we should learn what the Arabian mezbele is like. Consul Wetzstein (in his valuable contributions to Delitzsch's Commentary on Job) gives an accurate and graphic description of it, from which I select the following sentences: "The dung, which is heaped up there, is not mixed with straw, because in warm dry countries no litter is required for the cattle. It is brought dry, in baskets, to the place before the village, and is generally burned once every month... The ashes remain. . . . If a village has been inhabited for a century, the mezbele reaches a height which far surpasses it. The winter rains turn the ash-heap into a compact mass, and gradually change the mezbele into a firm mound of earth. . . It serves the inhabitants of the district as a watch-tower and, on close oppressive evenings, as a place of assembly, because there is a current of air on the height. There the children play about the whole day long; there the forsaken one lies, who, having been seized by some terrible malady, is not allowed to enter the dwellings of men; by day asking alms of the passers-by, and at night hiding himself among the ashes E |