AGUR, THE AGNOSTIC (continued 2)
Reading edition
CCXCVIII
Dost thou bestow might upon the horse? Dost thou clothe his neck with a waving mane? Dost thou make him to bound like a locust, In the pride of his terrible snort?
CCXCIX
He paws in the vale and rejoices; Goes with strength to encounter the weapons; He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, And recoileth not from the sword.
CCC
The quiver clangs upon him, The flashing lance and the javelin; Furiously bounding, he swallows the ground, And cannot be reined in at the trumpet-blast.
CCCI
When the clarion soundeth he crieth, "Aha!" And sniffs the dust raised by the hosts from afar; He dasheth into the thick of the fray, Into the captains' shouting and the roar of battle.
CCCII
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, And spread her pinions towards the south? She builds her nest on high, dwelling on the rock, And abideth there, seeking prey.
CCCIII
Will the caviller still contend with the Almighty? He that reproves God, let him answer! Wilt thou even disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayst be in the right?
CCCIV
If thou hast an arm like God, If thou canst thunder with a voice like his, Deck thyself now with majesty and grandeur And array thyself in glory and splendour!
CCCV
Scatter abroad the rage of thy wrath, And hurl down all that is exalted! The haughty bring low by a glance, And trample down the wicked in their place!
CCCVI
Hide them together in the dust, And bind their faces in secret! Then will I, too, confess unto thee That thine own right hand can save thee!
CCCVII
JOB:
Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will do so no more, Yea, twice, but I will proceed no further.
CCCVIII
I know that thou canst do everything, And that nothing is beyond thy reach; Hence I say: I have uttered that I understand not, Things too wonderful for me, which I know not.
CCCIX
I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, But now mine eye hath beheld thee; Therefore I resign and console myself, Though in dust and ashes.
EPILOGUE
CHAP. XLII. A.V.]
7¶ And if was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is_ right, as my servant Job_ hath.
8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.
10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
12 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.
17 So Job died, being old and full of days.
Footnotes:
[196] I.e., the magicians by means of incantations.
[197] Allusion to the Satan's remark in the Prologue, chap. i. to: "Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?"
[198] The strophe which follows in Prof. Bickell's text I consider a later insertion, and have therefore struck it out. It runs thus:
"The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of the young lions are broken; The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, And the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad."
[199] The prophetic vision which Eliphaz now describes is relied upon by him as the sanction for his whole discourse. To his seeming, it is a direct revelation from God.
[200] The sons of God, sons of the Elohim. Cf. Genesis vi. 4. There is no analogy between these sons of God and the angels or saints of Christianity. Cf. also Prof. Cheyne, "Job and Solomon," p. 81: Baudissin, Studien, II.
[201] The human body is likened to a tent of which the tent-pole is the breath of life; this gone, all that remains is the natural prey of the elements.
[202] Calumny.
[203] Allusion to his sufferings at night from elephantiasis. This terrible malady, which was first described by Rhazes, in the ninth century, under the name dâ-l-fîl ("disease of the elephant"), was for a long time erroneously believed to be confined to Arabia. As a matter of fact, it is found in an endemic state in all warm countries, and sporadically even in Europe. In tropical and sub-tropical lands it progresses with alarming rapidity. Every new crisis is preceded by a shivering sensation and violent fever, frequently accompanied with headache, delirium, and nervous and gastric suffering. A violent attack of this kind may last seven or eight days. The seat of the disease is generally the foot or the reproductive organs. In the former case the foot swells to a monstrous size, instep, toes and heel and ankle all merging in one dense mass that reminds one of the foot of an elephant.
[204] Job feels that death is nigh.
[205] Allusion to an ocean myth. A watch had to be set upon the movements of the monsters of the sea and the firmament.
[206] The irony of these words addressed by Job to Jehovah would be deemed blasphemous in a poet like Byron or Shelley. As a matter of fact, they constitute a parody of Psalm viii. 5. as Prof. Cheyne has already pointed out ("Job and Solomon").
[207] The firmament, being a solid mass, has paths cut out along which the stars move in their courses, just as there are channels made for the clouds and rain.
[208] This entire speech is ironical.
[209] Allusion to a myth.
[210] In the light of my own conscience I am not an evil-doer.
[211] Ironical.
[212] Lit., the man of lips.
[213] Wisdom.
[214] I.e., God's wisdom enables him to discern the deceit of those who appear just, and the punishment which he deals out to them makes the result of his knowledge visible to the dullest comprehension.
[215] A name for God.
[216] The current versions of the Bible make Job say the contrary: "With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding" (Job xii. 12, Authorised Version). Cf. ante, "Interpolations."
[217] I.e., Will ye persist in maintaining that God rewards the good and punishes the wicked (as Zophar has just done, strophe xcvii.) in spite of the fact that ye know it is untrue?
[218] I.e., not on grounds obvious to all, but because your own particular lot is satisfactory.
[219] Compare this with the extraordinary verse in our Authorised Version: "Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet"! (Job ii. 27).
[220] This is one of the very few passages in the Poem which throw light upon the date of its composition.
[221] I.e., the object for which he bartered righteousness.
[222] Host of evils which has attacked me from all sides.
[223] Ironical.
[224] An allusion to the promises made by the friends on the part of God that Job would, if he repented and asked for pardon, recover his former prosperity.
[225] Lit., the pieces of his skin.
[226] Probably an allusion to elephantiasis.
[227] The personification of death.
[228] Either "the sons of the womb which has borne me," as in iii. 10, or else "my own children," the poet forgetting that in the prologue they are described as having been killed.
[229] I.e., when it is too late.
[230] Zophar discerns perfect moral order in the world.
[231] God.
[232] I.e., by man.
[233] I.e., be silent.
[234] Job's ideal of a happy death was identical with that of Julius Caesar—the most sudden and least foreseen.
[235] Literally, "his."
[236] I.e., after his death.
[237] I.e., God.
[238] Ironical.
[239] If there be a God who rules the world, punishes evil, and rewards good, how comes it that we descry no signs of such just retribution?
[240] About seven strophes in the same quasi-impious strain, characterising the real reign of Jehovah upon earth as distinguished from the optimistic delineations of Job's friends, are lost. The verses that have taken their place in our manuscripts are portions of a different work, which has no relation whatever to our poem. They are not even in the same metre as Job, but contain strophes of three lines only.
[241] Conjecture of Professor Bickell; these two lines are not found in the MSS.
[242] I will judge ye out of your own mouths. Ye maintained, all of you, that the principles on which the world is governed are absolutely unintelligible. How then can ye reason as if the moral order were based upon retribution, and from my sufferings infer my sins?
[243] The miner who descends into the abyss of the earth, and carries a lamp.
[244] Wisdom is here identified with God, of whom we know nothing and have only vaguely heard from those who knew less, i.e., former generations, for whom Job has scant respect.
[245] To mete out justice.
[246] Two strophes are wanting here, in which Job presumably says that this great change of fortune is not the result of his conduct. The LXX offers nothing here in lieu of the lost verses; but the Massoretic text has the strophes which occur in the Authorised Version (xxxi. 1-4), and which would seem to have been substituted for the original verses. The present Hebrew text is useless here. If the four Massoretic verses which it offers had stood in the original, so important are they that they would never have been omitted by the Greek translators, who evidently did not possess them in their texts. They remind one to some extent of certain passages of the Sermon on the Mount, and are manifestly of late origin.
[247] I.e., my servant.
[248] The concourse of people and partisans at the gate where justice was administered.
[249] I.e., I never adored them as gods.
[250] Of the nobles.
[251] This is the passage become famous in the imaginary form: "That mine adversary had written a book!" (xxxi. 35).
[252] Daylight is hostile to criminals, and the manner in which it operates is here compared to a tossing of them off the outspread carpet of the earth.
[253] On a carpet, to which the earth is still compared.
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THE SPEAKER
TRANSLATION OF THE RESTORED TEXT
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