in the prospect of the appearing of Jesus Christ,' "is found unto praise, and honour, and glory." But still it is needful, in the eyes of his chastising Father, that Job, " for a season," should remain “in heaviness through manifold temptation." The precious gold will not be lost in this furnace; but it must consume all his dross, and he will know that God, “in very faithfulness, has caused him to be troubled."

SECTION XI.

Zophar's Second Address.

Chap. xx. Ver. 1. THEN answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said:

2. Therefore would my agitated thoughts make me reply, And because of this' is my hurry within me.

3. I would hear the reproof of my shame!

And the spirit of my understanding shall answer for

me1.

Threatened, in common with the other friends, by Job, with the vengeance of his Redeemer, and a judgment to come, for their calumny and malicious persecution of him in his distress, Zophar expresses the agitation and indignity that he feels, and can scarce restrain at such a suggestion. He would be glad to hear the shameful charge brought against him; he should know well how to rebut the

Mr. Good translates,

Whither would my tumult transport me,

And how far my agitation within me.

"I have heard (sayst thou) the charge of my reproach; "And the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me."

accusation; and he proceeds again to confront Job with another celebrated saying' or ' parable' of antiquity.

4. This surely thou hast known from of old,

From the time that man was placed upon earth.

Certainly, this important fact you will acknowledge to have been always established by the expe. rience of all preceding ages; or, you have observed it to be the common declaration of all our sages from the most remote antiquity:

5. That "the triumphing of the wicked is short,
"And the joy of the profane but for a moment.
6." Though his exaltation mount up to the heavens,
"And his head touch the clouds:

7. "In his evolution altogether shall he perish,

They who saw him shall say, Where is he?

8. "He shall fly away like a dream, and cannot be

found,

"And he shall vanish as a vision of the night.

, brevis ex Arab. SIM. LEX. More literally," the triumphing of the wicked is but a short affair,'" or "soon called in."

While

signifies to evolve, or turn round; hence, a wheel, -,"adverbium temporis, ' dum' vel cum' exprimit." in his evolution' ny" prorsus, omninò, q. d. purum putum." The metaphor, I conceive, is the comparison, still usual, of the changes and reverses of human fortune to the rotation of a wheel.

c And "they shall not find it, or him:" the allusion is to those dreams which men feel sensible they have had, but have lost them on a sudden, and cannot recover them.

9. The eye had caught a glimpse of him, but cannot repeat it,

"And never again shall his place behold him ".

10. His children shall seek to please the poor,

"And their hands make restitution from his labour.

11. "His bones were filled with his secret sin,

"And with him in the dust it shall lie down "."

If this translation has given the true sense of the two last verses, there seems to be a contrast between those crimes of oppression, for the injuries of which, the poorest now demand satisfaction of his unprotected children; and those secret sins, of which his inmost parts were full: these follow him, as it were, to his grave.

Another parable or saying is, probably, begun to be quoted at this place.

12. "

Though wickedness should be sweet in his mouth, "And he conceal it under his tongue;

13. He be tender of it, and will not let it go, "But retain it still on his palate;

14. His food shall turn on his stomach!

a

"It shall be the gall of asps within him!"

Or, with Mr. Good,

"The eye shall glance on him and do no more."

Or, and it-the eye-shall not again see him in his place.' The rendering of these two verses is involved in great uncertainty. Mr. Good suggests, and supports at considerable length, the following:

"His children shall wander about beggars,

"And his branches be involved in his iniquity;

"His secret lusts shall follow his bones,

"Yea, they shall press upon him in the dust."

A very striking picture of the sinner enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season,' and of the awful retribution. He is compared to a person trying to retain, as long as possible, some delicious morsel in his mouth, to prolong the pleasure of its taste. But this very dainty, when he has swallowed it, proves the most virulent poison of asps. And, as it follows in the next verse, if the accumulation of wealth, instead of the enjoyment of sinful pleasure, be the object of his pursuit, very similar shall be the issue; it shall be as a load of unwholesome food upon his stomach, which he shall nauseate and eject.

15. "Though he glut himself with riches, yet shall he vomit them up.

"El shall cast them forth from his bowels.

16." He shall suck the poison of asps,

"And the tongue of a viper shall kill him.”

That is, the wealth, which his greedy avarice has gotten, shall, in its effects, be as though he had been sucking the poison from the asp, &c.

The following verses seem to intimate, heaven will sometimes punish the wicked man with a drought :

17. He shall not see the rills of the streams,

"The torrents of honey and butter.

18. Though' he return to labour, yet shall he not eat; "Sterility shall be' his recompense, and nothing shall he taste".

See Mr. Good's translation, and notes.

The allusion is to those spots industriously watered by artificial reservoirs and channels, which, at the wonted season, are filled with the floods and torrents, and convey them throughout the plantation. But God may be expected to withhold the showers of heaven, because of the sinner's transgressions.

19. "Because he hath violently handled the orphan of the poor,

Ransacking the house, instead of building it up.

20. Because he knew no rest to his appetite,

"Nor could the object of his desire be extorted from him.

21. "There was no remnant of his food,

"Therefore could none expect his bounty."

The whole is the picture of the greedy, avaricious man, who spent all upon himself and would spare nothing for the poor. The judgment that awaits such an one from God is next set forth.

22. With both his hands full, shall he be in want; Every lot of calamity shall befal him.

66

23. "It shall be, that, while he is filling his belly,

"HE shall send against him the fierceness of his wrath, "And rain it upon him while he is eating.

24. "

ь

Though' he shall flee from the clashing steel, "The brazen bow shall transfix him.

Mr. Good; or, the pledge, or deposit. SIM. Lex.

bp signifies to strike, or place both hands together, either to clap them, or to increase their capacity of holding. Hence, in Syriac, it means to be sufficient,' and also to receive,' or ' have the capacity of receiving.' Compare 1 Kings, xx. 10.