CONTENTS. 1. The Account of Job, and of his prosperity-his Cha- racter, and his Religion as a worshipper of Je- hovah Elohim, with some Observations on the 2. Job's Trial of Affliction.-The providential Govern- ment of God by the instrumentality of Angels.- The share of the Evil Spirit in the afflictions of - 47 16. Job continues his discourse, recapitulating the Argu- ments of his Friends, respecting a present retri- butive Providence. He compares their Statement to the Mirage, or Watery Delusion of the Desert - 327 17. Job states it as his opinion, that to understand the - 350 THE BOOK OF JOB. PART THE FIRST. THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. SECTION FIRST.-(CHAPTER I. 1-5.) The Account of Job, and of his prosperity-his Character, and his Religion as a worshipper of Jehovah Elohim. Chap. i. 1.-There was a man in the land of Uz whose' name was Job. This man was sound and upright, and he feared Elohim, and departed from evil. THE character here given of Job, is that which, we shall see below, was given him by God himself. The compiler, or the enroller of this book in the sacred canon, if we suppose the introduction written by him, has merely affixed it to a certain person who lived in the land of Uz. If lexicographers are right in the etymology of the name of Job-" he who repented and gave praise to God"-it must have been a name which attached to him on account of his trial and its results; and, as is very probable from the custom of remote antiquity, some slight alteration was made in his original name, to make it significant, and to B stand as a memorial of this important transaction in his history, as Abram's name was changed into that of Abraham a. The word rendered ' perfect,' in our public translation, denotes consummation or completeness of any kind; it signifies also it signifies also integrity' or simplicity,' and is applied to the body of an animal when free from disease, sound and entire in all its parts. The epithet, in this passage, refers, I conceive, to the soundness or purity of Job's faith. He had kept whole and undefiled-in its simplicity-the faith revealed to his fathers. Thus it is said of Noah, that he was "perfect in his generations," and "walked with Elohim"." a from the Arab, 288 to turn, to repent, to praise God. Ayob, or Ayub, as Job is written in the original, is still a common name in the east. Some suppose the name of the patriarch before his trial was Jobab, a name which we first find, in Gen. x. 29. 2, was the name of the youngest son of Joktan, the progenitor of the ancient Arabians. Compare Phil. iii. 15, where the apostle uses the term 'perfect' in a similar sense, and in distinction from another, 'perfection,' full conformity to the image of Christ (ver. 12): the latter he had not attained, but was pursuing; in the sense of the former term he was perfect, being fully instructed in the gospel of Christ. The Hebrew term on, is indeed frequently used, where there appears no necessary allusion to moral purity or excellence. It characterizes the plain simplicity of Jacob's early life, as contrasted with that of his brother Esau," a cunning hunter, and a man of the field." It is used also for the mere absence of premeditated design, 1 Kings xxii. 34: where we render "a certain man drew a bow at a venture." And in 2 Sam. xv. 11, where some who were invited to join Absalom in his unnatural rebellion, are said to have "gone in their simplicity, and knew not any thing." He feared Elohim and departed from evil,' seems exegetic, or explanatory of" perfect and upright." The term fear,' which among the writers of the Old Testament so frequently expresses the religious principle generally, does not necessarily denote that apprehension of danger or of wrath, which the apostle tells us perfect love casteth out,' but only that feeling of awe and reverence, which cannot be separated from the crea ture's admiration of the Great God-the fear and trembling with which his worship and service must be attended by pious minds, though all his goodness be made to pass before them, and those attributes of Deity, which might well create alarm, be screened by revealed and pledged mercies. And departed from evil.' This not only denotes, by the signification of its effect upon his moral conduct, the truth and reality of the religious principle of Job, as St. Paul designates those whom God has approved as his own,-" They name the NAME of the Lord, and depart from evil;" but it reminds us of the term from which every man must set out on a truly religious course, and also of the circumstance of his being continually beset with temptation and sin all his days upon earth. The blessing of revealed religion comes upon every one,' to turn him from his iniquity. It finds him " by nature a child of wrath even as others," very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil,' in some way or other "having his conversa |