A new translation of Job, Ecclesiastes and the Canticles, with introductions, and notes, chiefly explanatory

Front matter

A

NEW .TRANSLATION

JOB, ECCLESIASTES.

Introduction To Job

The work, which it is the design of the present volume to illus¬ trate, is in many respects one of the most remarkable productions of any age or country. It is, without doubt, in its general plan, as well as in the rhythmical construction and high poetic character of its language, the elaborate work of a skilful artist. Deep thought and long-continued study must have been united with genius in its production. Yet has it, in a much higher degree than most compositions, the freshness of an unstudied effusion of the soul of the author; a soul full of the sublimest conceptions of the Parent of nature and his glorious works, and of true and deep sympathy with all that is great and amiable in the character, and affecting in the condition, of man. The imagination of the author seems to have ranged freely through every part of the universe, and to have enriched itself from almost every department of na¬ ture and of art. Whether he attempt to describe the residence of Him “who maintainetlx peace in his high places, v or “the land of darkness and the shadow, of death; ” the passions and pur¬ suits of man, or the nature and features of the animal creation; the phenomena of the air and the heavens, or the dark operations of the miner,—he is ever familiar with his subject, and seems to tell us what his eyes have seen and his ears have heard. And not more remarkable are the richness and vigor of his imagination than his power in representing the deep emotions and the tender affections of the soul. Admirable, too, in a poem of so. high anti¬ quity, is the skill with which he makes all the delineations of the human heart, and all the descriptions of external nature, subservient to the illustration of one important moral subject; thus uniting the attributes of the poet and philosopher. It is true that we miss the perfection of Grecian art in the structure of the work of a Hebrew poet who wrote more than a century before iEschylus and his plan required him to set forth the general workings of the human heart, rather than to delineate the nicer shades of human character. It was in harmony with the ethical nature of the com¬ position, that his characters should make speeches, rather than converse. Yet no one can fail to perceive the unity of design which "pervades the work, and the adaptation of the various parts of it to its completion.

The first place among the Hebrew poets has usually been as¬ signed to Isaiah. But in what respect the Great Unknown, the w author of the Book of Job, can be regarded as inferior to any Hebrew poet, or any other poet, unless perhaps we except Shakspeare, I am at a loss to conceive. In comprehensiveness of thought, and in richness and strength of imagination, he seems to me to be unsurpassed; and in depth and tenderness of feeling to be incomparable, when we consider that female loveliness con- . stitutes no part of the interest of the work. Almost every Chris¬ tian poet has felt his influence in respect both to thought and expression. But to delineate the excellences and beauties of the Book of Job is a task far beyond my capacity. They must be understood and felt, rather than described.

There has been much discussion in former times, in regard to the particular department of poetry and literature under which the Book of Job should be classed. Undue importance has with¬ out doubt been attached to this question; and the scope and spirit of the work have in a degree been lost sight of, in the eagerness with which different writers have sought to establish its claim to the appellation of epic or dramatic, or its place in a particular department of poetical composition. The truth is, that there is nothing which bears an exact resemblance to it in Grecian, Ro¬ man, or modem literature. It has something in common, not only with different forms of composition, but with different departments of literature. Those who have given it the appel¬ lation of an epic poem have applied to it a term the least suited to its character, and the most unjust to its claims as

THE BOOK OP JOB.

a work of art. They have made unimportant circumstances, in regard to its form, of more consequence than its substantial char¬ acter, spirit, and design. Nothing can be more evident than the fact, that to excite interest in the personal fortunes of Job, as the hero of a poem,.was not the principal design of the writer. Still less was it his design to unfold characteristic traits in the other personages introduced into the work. Some, indeed, have discovered, as they supposed, striking characteristic traits in Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite 5 and have pointed out the different degrees of severity which they exhibited towards their friend in his distress. It appears to me that these writers have drawn largely on their own imagina¬ tions to make their opinions probable. There is, no doubt, some diversity in the manner and substance of the discourses of the friends of Job. The author may have put the longest and best speeches into the mouth of an inhabitant of a city so famous for its wisdom as Teman; * and to Elihu, whom some regard as thrust into the place he occupies by a later writer than the author, he certainly assigns, at least in the beginning of Elihu’s speech, and in the preambles in chap, xxxiii. 1-9,31-33, xxxiv. 2-4, xxxv. 2 - 4 , the language of a young man who has made rather an extrav¬ agant estimate of his abilities and his consequence. But I seek in vain for evidence that the author made it a principal object to . excite an interest in the actions or characters of the personages whom he introduces. He had little dramatic power.

There is more plausibility in the views of those who have regarded and named the Book of Job a dramatic poem. For, undoubtedly, the character of Job has a tragic interest, and reminds one of the most interesting characters of Grecian tragedy, suffer¬ ing by the will of the gods or the necessities of fate, especially the Prometheus Vinetus of iEschylus. In regard to its form, there is something that resembles dialogue,—though the per¬ sons taking part in it make speeches rather than converse,— and something that bears a distant resemblance to a prologue and an epilogue. The author has also skilfully introduced into vari¬ ous parts of the work hints having reference to the final issue of

* Jer. xlix. 7.

the fortunes of Job, similar to those which occur in the best of the Greek tragedies, such as the (Edipus Tyr annus. (See chap. viii. 6,7; xvi. 19; xix. 25, &e., compared with chap, xlii.) Still, to give the name of a drama or a tragedy to this production is to give it a name from what is incidental to it, rather than from its pervading spirit and prominent design. To call it a poein of any land fails to suggest the characteristic feature of the work, though it contains poetry, which perhaps has never been surpassed.

If we have regard to the main design, the substance and spirit of the work, we shall refer it to the department of moral or reli¬ gious philosophy. It contains the moral or religious philosophy' of the time when it was produced. It is rather a philosophical religious discussion in a poetical form than an epic or dramatic poem. It is more nearly allied to the Essay on Man than to Para¬ dise Lost, or Prometheus Yinctus. It is the effusion of the mind and heart of the author upon a moral subject which has agitated the human bosom in every age. Still, the author was a poet as well as a religious philosopher. In the mode of presenting the subject to. his readers, he aimed, like other poets, to move the human feelings by exhibitions of passion and scenes of. distress, and to please the taste by the sublime flights of his imagination. He aimed to give the highest interest to his subject by clothing his thoughts in the loftiest language of poetry, and arranging them in the measured rhythm which is'one of the characteristics of He¬ brew poetry.

It might be interesting to analyze the pure religious doctrines which the author held, and, with wonderful liberality for one of the Jewish nation, ascribed to Arabians; but such an analysis is hardly necessary in an introduction to the book. It seems par¬ ticularly remarkable that he should ascribe Divine inspiration to Eliphaz the Temanite. (See chap. iv. 12-21.)

The special subject of this unique production is the ways of Providence in regard to the distribution of good and evil in the world, in connection with the dpetrine of a righteous retribution in the present life, such as seemed to be contained in the Jewish religion. It sets forth the struggle between faith in the perfect government of God, or in a righteous retribution in the present life, and the various doubts excited in the soul of man by what it

'7 feels 01 -sees of human misery, and by what it knows of the pros¬ perity of the contemners of God. These doubts the author expresses in strong and irreverent language from the lips of Job; while the received doctrine of an exact earthly retribution, which pervades the Jewish religion, is maintained and reiterated by the personages introduced as the friends of Job.

The subject is one which comes home to men’s business and bosoms. Even under the light of Christianity, perhaps there are few who have not in peculiar seasons felt a conflict between faith in the perfect government of God, and various feelings excited in their minds by what they have experienced or witnessed of human suffering. The pains of the innocent, — of those who cannot dis¬ cern their right hand from their left hand, —the protracted calam¬ ities which are often the lot of the righteous, and the prosperity which often crowns the designs of the wicked, have at times ex¬ cited, wonder, perplexity, and doubt in almost every thoughtful mind. We, as Christians, silence coir doubts, and confirm our faith, by what experience teaches us of the general wisdom and benevolence of the Creator, by the consideration that affliction comes from the same merciful hand which is the source of all the good that we have ever enjoyed, by the perception of the moral and religious influences of adversity, and especially by the hope of the jpy to be realized in a better world, which is set before those who endure to the end. The apostle could say for the con¬ solation of himself and his fellow-sufferers, “For I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” And every Chris¬ tian knows that the Captain of his salvation ascended to his throne of glory from the ignominious cross. The cross is the great source of the Christian’s consolation. But let us suppose ourselfes to be deprived of those sources of consolation which are peculiar to a disciple of Christ, and we may conceive of the state of mind of the author of the Book of Job, upon whom the Sun of righteousness had never dawned. Is it strange that the soul of a pious Jew, who lived before “life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel,” should have been agitated by the conflict between such a faith in temporal retribution as his religion seemed to require, and the doubts and munnurings excited by what lie felt and saw of the calamities of the righteous, and witnessed of the prosperity of the wicked P One of the most enlightened of the Komans, when called to mourn the early loss of the children of his hopes, was led, as he says, almost “to accuse the gods, and to exclaim, that no Providence governed the world.” An Arabic poet, quoted by Dr. Pococke,* writes: —

Hoc est quod animos perplexos relinquit,

w How many wise men are reduced to distress,

And how many fools will you find in prosperity!

« It is this that leaves the mind in perplexity,

And makes Sadducees of very learned men.”

We think that many have stated too strongly the argument for the immortality of the soul, drawn from the apparent inequalities of the present state. To maintain that there is little or no retri¬ bution in this part of the Creator’s dominions appears to me not the best way of proving that there will be a perfect one in another part of them. Nor is such a representation true. To a very important extent, “we still have justice here.” But the senti¬ ments referred to above, respecting the limited retributions of the present life, may serve to illustrate the mental condition of a pious man of exalted genius, who appears to have had no conception, or at least no belief, of a state after death that was desirable in comparison with the present life.

In Ps. lxxiii. we have the thoughts which passed through the mind of another upon the same subject: —

“ Yet my feet almost gave way;

My steps had well nigh slipped:

For I was envious of the profane,

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked,” &c.

Ps. xxxvii. may also be considered as being upon the same sub¬ ject, and so likewise the Book of Ecclesiastes; though a more sceptical spirit seems to pervade the latter than either of the psalms above mentioned, or the Book of Job.

* Not. in Port. Mos. c. vii. Opp. p. 214.

THE BOOK OP JOB.

Such being the subject which filled the mind of the author of this book, the question arises, how he has treated it, or what he aimed to accomplish in regard to it. That in his own view he had solved all the difficulties which embarrass the human understanding in regard to the subject is not very probable. But that he pro¬ posed to establish some definite truths in relation to it, as well as to inculcate the duty of entire submission to God, and unreserved faith in him, is, I think, clear, fl do not believe, with Be Wette, that he meant to leave the subject an utter mystery, and merely to bring man to a helpless consciousness of his ignorance. The prologue and epilogue, which this writer admits to be genuine, to say nothing of the speech of Elihu, refute such an opinion. The most prominent part of the author’s design is, indeed, to enforce the duty of unqualified submission to the will of God, and of rev¬ erential faith amid all the difficulties which perplex the understand¬ ing in relation to the government of God. -But a part of it is also to illustrate the truth, that moral character is not to be inferred from outward condition (see chap, xxxiii. 19-28) ; that afflictions are designed as the trial of. piety, and as means for its advance¬ ment ; and that they lead in the end to higher good than would otherwise be obtained; and thus to assert eternal providence, and justify the ways of God to man. And, while he enforces the duty of entire submission to God, he incidentally intimates that un¬ founded censures and unkind treatment of a friend in distress are more offensive to the Deity than those expressions 'of impatience which affliction may wring from the lips of the pious.*

The author aims to show, that, in the distribution of good and evil in the world, God is sometimes influenced by reasons which man can neither discover nor comprehend, and not solely by the merit or demerit of his creatures; that the righteous are often afflicted, and the wicked prospered: but that this course of provi¬ dence is perfectly consistent with wisdom, justice, and goodness in the Deity, though man is unable to discern the reasons, of it; that afflictions are often intended as the trials of piety and the means of moral improvement; that man is an incompetent judge of the Divine dispensations; that, instead of rashly daring to pene-

* Chap. xlii. 7 , trate or to censure the counsels of his Creator, it is his duty to submit to his will, to reverence his character, and to obey his laws; and that the end will prove the wisdom as well as the obli¬ gation and the happy consequences of such submission, rever¬ ence, and obedience.

In this view, I have taken the whole book, as we now have it, to be genuine. I think this supposition is attended with the fewest difficulties. Those who discard the speech of Elihu, the twenty-eighth chapter and part of the twenty-seventh, and the prose introduction and conclusion, must give, of course, an ac¬ count of it somewhat different. They imagine that by the exclu¬ sion of these portions they give greater unity to the composition. But where did they learn that every poem must have perfect unity, or even perfect consistency P

In order to accomplish the design, or express the views, which I have exhibited, in such a manner that his work should possess the highest interest for his readers, the author employs a form of composition resembling that of the drama. He brings forward a personage, celebrated probably in the traditions of his country on account of the distinguished excellence of his character, and the marvellous vicissitudes through which he had passed. In the delineation of the character and fortunes of this personage, he uses the liberty of a poet in stating every thing in extremes, or in painting every thing in the broadest colors, that he might thus the better illustrate the moral truth, and accomplish the moral pur¬ pose, which he had in view.

He introduces to the reader an inhabitant of the land of Uz, in the northern part of Arabia, equally distinguished by his piety and his prosperity. He was pronounced by the Searcher of hearts an upright and good man; and he was surrounded by a happy family, and was the most wealthy of all the inhabitants of the East.

If virtue and piety could in any case be a security against calam¬ ity, then must Job’s prosperity have been lasting. Who ever had more reason for expecting continued prosperity, the favor of men, and the smiles of Providence P “ But, when he looked for good, evil came.” A single day produces a complete reverse in his condition, and reduces him from the height of prospe^j^fc^ t]i^ lowest depths of misery. He is stripped of his possessions^rifis children, a numerous family, for whom he had never forgotten to offer to God a morning sacrifice, are buried under the ruins of their houses, which a hurricane levels with the ground; and, finally, he is afflicted, in his own person, with a most loathsome and dan¬ gerous disease. Thus the best man in the world has become the most miserable man in the world.

The. reader is made acquainted in the outset with the cause of the afflictions of Job. At an assembly of the sons of God, — that is, the inhabitants of heaven, —in the presence of the Governor of the world, an evil spirit, Satan, the adversary or accuser in the court of heaven, had come, on his return from an excursion over the earth, to present himself before God, or to stand in readiness to receive his commands. Jehovah puts' the question to Satan, whether he had taken notice of the model of human excellence exhibited in the character of his servant Job, and sets forth the praise of this good man in terms so emphatic as to excite the envy and ill-will of that suspicious accuser of his brethren. Satan inti¬ mates that selfishness is the sole motive of Job’s obedience; that it was with views of profit, and not from sentiments of reverence toward God, that he paid him an outward service; that, if Jehovah should take away the possessions of him whom he believed so faithful, he would at once renounce his service. “Doth Job fear God for nought?’ 1 To establish the truth of what he had said in commendation of his servant, Jehovah is represented as giving permission to Satan to put the piety of Job to the test, by taking away at once all his possessions and all his children. But the evil spirit gains no triumph. Job remains true to his allegiance. He sins not even with his, lips. There is yet another assembly of the heavenly spirits; and here the hateful spirit, the disbe¬ liever in human virtue, persists in maintaining that it is the love of life, the dearest of all possessions to man, which retains Job in his allegiance. Satan therefore is represented as having per¬ mission to take from Job all that can be called life, except the, mere consciousness of existence and the ability to express his sentiments in the condition to which he is reduced, by the inflic¬ tion of a most loathsome disease. And. yet the good man, in this lowest point of depression, is represented as remaining patient so long, that when his wife, whom Satan appears to have spared to him for no good purpose, tempts him to renounce his allegiance to God, he calmly answers, “ Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? ” Thus far he did not sin with his lips.

But when the fame of Job’s sufferings had spread abroad, and had drawn around him a company of his friends, who had left their distant homes to sympathize with him in his calamities, lie is represented as- giving vehement utterance to his long-repressed impatience, and pouring out his complaints and doubts in rash language, with which the reader would hardly be able to sympa¬ thize, were it not for the account which has been given of the cause of his afflictions in the introductory chapters.

But the friends of Job, who of course are not acquainted with the cause of his sufferings in the occurrences of the heavenly as¬ sembly, are thrown into amazement at the condition in which they • find their friend, and the expressions uttered by him whom they had heretofore looked upon as a wise and good man. They are silent while they witness only his dreadful sufferings; but, when they hear the vehement and rash complaints which are extorted from him by the severity of his distress, they refrain no longer from expressing their sentiments respecting the cause of his calami¬ ties. They ascribe them to his sins. Thus commences a discussion respecting the causes of human sufferings between Job and his friends; They, are represented as holding the doctrine of a strict and perfect retribution in the present life; as maintaining that misery always implies guilt; and hence, instead of bringing him comfort and consolation, they accuse him of having merited his misfortunes by secret wickedness. They exhort him to repent¬ ance, as if he were a great sinner suffering the just punishment of his crimes. /

Job. repels their insinuations with indignation, and firmly main¬ tains his innocence. He knows not why he suffers. He com¬ plains of severe treatment, and asserts that God afflicts equally the righteous .and the wicked. His friends are offended with the sentiments to which he gives utterance, and undertake to vindicate the conduct of the Deity towards him. They repeat with greater asperity their charges of wickedness and impiety, and even go so far as to accuse him of particular crimes. But the more they press their accusations, the more confident is he in his assertions of his innocence, or of the justice of his cause. He avows his conviction that God will one day manifest himself as the vindicator of his character. He appeals to him as the witness of his sincerity; denies the constancy, and even the frequency, of his judgments upon wicked men; and boldly asks for an opportunity of pleading his cause with his Creator, confident that he should be acquitted before any righteous tribunal. His friends are reduced to silence; Bildad closing their remarks by a few general maxims respecting the greatness of God and the frailty of man, and Zophar not un¬ dertaking to say any thing.

The spirit of Job is somewhat softened by their silence; and he retracts some of the sentiments, which, in the anguish of his spirit, and the heat of controversy, he had inconsiderately uttered. “ He proceeds with calm confidence like a lion among his defeated enemies.” He shows that he was able to speak of the perfections of God, and to express all that was true in the positions of his opponents, in a better style than any of them. He now admits, what before he seemed to deny, that wicked men arc often visited by severe punishment. But from his main position he does not retreat, that misery*is not always the consequence of wickedness, and that God has a hidden wisdom in regard to the distribution of happiness and misery, which it is impossible for man to fathom. He then proceeds with a melting pathos to describe his present in contrast with his former condition, and to give a most beauti¬ ful picture of his character and life, very pardonable in one of whom the reader knows what has in the prologue been said by the Governor of the world before the angels of heaven. From this retrospect of his past life, he is led to renewed protestations of his innocence, and of his desire to have his cause tried before the tribunal of his Creator.

In this stage of the discussion, a new disputant is brought for¬ ward, probably for the purpose of expressing some thoughts of the author on the design of afflictions, and for the purpose of forming a contrast in respect to style and manner with the manifestation of the Deity which follows. Elihu is represented as a young man coming forward with an air of great confidence, though in words he ascribes the burden with which his breast was laboring to the inspiration of God* He does, indeed, bring forward some thoughts on the moral influence of afflictions which had not been uttered by the friends of Job; maintaining that, though they may not be the punishment of past offences, nor evidence of guilt, they may oper¬ ate as preventives of those sins which the best of men sometimes commit, and as a salutary discipline for the correction of those faults of which a man may be unconscious until his attention is awakened by adversity. Thus he offers a more rational conjec¬ ture than the three friends of Job, in regard to the cause of his afflictions; and, in fact, gives nearly the same account of it which is regarded as true by the writer, and is implied in the prologue and epilogue of the poem. .Affliction, according to Elihu, is designed for the moral benefit of the sufferer. His view of the design of human sufferings is, therefore, nearer the Christian doc¬ trine than that of any speaker in the book. Of course, like all others, he fails of completely solving all the difficulties, which, even under the light of the Christian dispensation, are connected with the subject of the amount of evil which exists in the world, and the distribution of good and evil in it, under the govern¬ ment of God. Thus an appropriate place remains for .the sublime speech of the Deity relating to the unsearchableness of his counsels and his ways-.

Human wisdom, the learned wisdom of age, and the unbiassed genius of youth, having now been exhausted upon the subject, at length the Supreme Being himself is represented as speak¬ ing from the midst of a tempest, and putting an end to the con¬ troversy; the dignity of his introduction being rendered more impressive by the self-confident egotism with which Elihu had com¬ menced his part in the contest.

The Creator decides the controversy, to a certain extent, in favor of Job. Jehovah does not, however, condescend to explain to him the ways of his providence, or to reveal to him the reasons which influence his conduct; but, in a series of forcible ques¬ tions relating to the Divine operations in the realms of nature, he convinces him of his inability to fathom the Divine counsels, demonstrates the necessity of faith in a wisdom which he cannot

THE BOOK OP JOB.

comprehend, produces in him a sense of his weakness and igno¬ rance, and leads him to profound repentance on account of the rashness of his language; and thus prepares the way for. the final vindication of his faithful servant. In a strain of sublime .rony, he requests him, who had spoken with such confidence and bold¬ ness of the ways of God, to give an explanation of some of the phenomena which were constantly presented to his view, — ol the nature and structure of the earth, the sea, the light, and the ani¬ mal kingdom. If he be unable to explain any of the common phenomena of nature, how can he expect to comprehend the secret counsels and moral government of the invisible Author of nature?

But, having shown the reasonableness of entire confidence in his unsearchable wisdom, and of submission to his darkest dispensa¬ tions, the Supreme Judge does, in the main, decide the contro¬ versy in favor of Job. He declares that he had spoken that which was right; that is, in maintaining that his misery was not the con¬ sequence of his guilt, or that character is not to be inferred from external condition; and that the friends of Job had not spoken that which was right in condemning him as a wicked man on ac¬ count of his misery, or in maintaining that suffering always implies guilt. (Chap. xlii. 7,8.) The cause of Job’s afflictions, which was unknown to the disputants, has already been communicated to the reader in the introductory chapters; namely, that they were ap¬ pointed as a temporary trial of his virtue, in order to vindicate the judgment of Jehovah concerning him, and to prove against all gainsayers the disinterestedness of his piety. Finally, Jehovah is represented as bestowing upon Job double the prosperity which distinguished him before his affliction, and thus as compensating him for the calamities he had suffered; thereby showing, for the consolation of all who endure affliction, that the end of the good man will prove that he was also wise.