Note 86 — Chapter XXIV · PATIENCE IN WAITING. THE ENDURANCE OF JOB. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MENTION OF JOB BY ST. JAMES.

As already pointed out, this metaphor is perhaps a reminiscence of the Book of Job, to which St. James alludes in the passage before us. He was evidently fond of the sapiential writings, to which Job is akin. "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more" (Job vii. 6, 9). See [footnote [84]].

[87] The Rhemish Version distinguishes the words—"be patient" and "patience" for the one, "suffer" and "sufferance" for the other, the Vulgate having patientia and sufferentia.

[88] Reges. "So Job's friends are here called, because they were princes in their respective territories." Note in the Douay Version, from which the translation of the passage is taken.

[89] See The Pastoral Epistles, in this series, pp. 379-84 (Hodder and Stoughton, 1888).

[90] That the Book of Job is not pure history is plain from (1) the dialogue between Jehovah and Satan, and the addresses ascribed to the Almighty in the body of the poem; (2) the dramatic character of Job's calamities, man and nature alternately inflicting blows at him, and in each case just one messenger escaping; (3) the dramatic character of his compensation, his goods being exactly doubled, and his family being made exactly what it was before; (4) the elaboration of the dialogue between Job and his friends. On the other hand, it is not likely that it is pure invention. We have no evidence of literary power equal to such invention at the early date to which the Book of Job must be assigned, viz. before the Return from the Captivity; and the writer's object would be better attained if he took an historical person, than if he invented one, as his centre.

[91] The word for "full of pity" (πολύσπλανχνος) was possibly coined by St. James himself; it occurs nowhere else. It might be rendered "large-hearted." A few inferior MSS. have πολυεύσπλανχνος, a word which is found in ecclesiastical and Byzantine writers. The simpler εὔσπλανχνος occurs 1 Pet. iii. 8; Eph. iv. 32; and in the Prayer of Manasses; ὅτι σὺ εἶ κύριοσ ὕψιστος, εὔσπλανχνος, μακρόθυμος, καὶ πολυέλεος. The unique πολύσπλανχνος looks like a combination of πολυέλεοσ and εὔσπλανχνος. Comp. Joel ii. 13; Jonah iv. 2. The word for "merciful" occurs Luke vi. 36 (comp. Col. iii. 12) and frequently in the Septuagint; e.g. Ecclus. ii. 11; οἰκτίρμων καὶ ἐλεήμων ὁ κύριος.