"wereriler than the earth." This is a description, and a very exact one, of the Cutheans or Samaritans; of their behaviour to the Jews; and the sentiments of the Jews concerning them. These had him in derision, "But it came he says, and so Nehemiah informs us : "to pass, that when Sanballot heard that we builded "the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, " and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his "brethren and the army of Samaria, and said: What "do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? "will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? "will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the "rubbish, which are burnt? Now Tobiah the Ammo "nite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their "stone wall. Hear, O our God, for we are despised, "and turn their reproach upon their own head †." And God, by the Prophet Malachi, tells the Jews the reason why he suffered them to be thus humbled: Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the Law ‡.-Job says he would have disdained to have set these with the dogs of his flock, that they were younger than him, that they were children of fools, yea of base men, ciler than the earth. It is well known in what sovereign contempt the Jews held the Cutheans or Samaritans above all People. The character here given of the baseness of their Extraction, without doubt, was very just. For when a Conqueror, as here the king of Assyria, would repeople, with his own subjects, a strange country entirely ravaged and burnt up by an exterminating war, none but the very scum of a People would be sent upon such an errand. And by the account Ezra gives * Ch.xxx. ver. 1, & seq. † Neh. iv. 1, & seq. † Mal. ii. 9. US us of this Colony, as gathered out of many parts of the Assyrian Empire, we may fairly conclude them to be the offscourings of the East. "Then wrote Rehum "the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the "rest of their companions, the Dinaites, the Aphar"sathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Arche"vites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, " and the Elamites, and the rest of the Nations whom "the great and noble Asnapper brought over and set "in the cities of Samaria *."- Job describes them as being at first reduced to the utmost distresses for food and harbour, in a desolate and waste wilderness, living upon roots, and dwelling in caves and clifts of the rock: and assuredly such must have been the first entertainment of this wretched Colony, transplanted into a Country entirely wasted and destroyed by a three years incessant ravage †, Nay, before they could come up to take possession of their desolate places, the wild beasts of the field were got before them, and a scourge of Lions prepared to receive them for their idolatrous pollutions of the holy Land ‡. Job has now ended his Parable; and Gop is brought in to judge the Disputants; whose speech opens in this manner: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? The character which God here gives of Job is that which the Prophets give of the People of this time. Ye have wearied the Lord with your words ||, says Malachi. And again: Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. But on Job's repeated submis sion and humiliation, GoD at length declares his acceptance of him. And thus he received the People Ezra iv. 9, 10. 2 Kings xvii. 5. Chap. xxxviii. ver. 1,2. || Mal. ii. 17. Z VOL, V. ‡ Id. ib. ¶ Mul. iii, 13. into into grace, as we learn by the Prophet Zechariah:-Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem*. It is added, Also the Lord gave Job TWICE as much as he had before and in the same manner GOD speaks to the People by the Prophet: Turn ye to the strong-hold, ye prisoners of hope, even to-day do I declare that I will render DOUBLE unto thee t.-Job's brethren now came to comfort him, and every man gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear-ring of gold. This, without question, alludes to the presents which Ezra tells us the Jews of Babylon made to their brethren in Judea: And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.-The history adds, So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning: and thus the future prosperity of the People was predicted by the Prophets of this time: The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of Hosts: And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her††.—The Book concludes with these words: After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons sons, even four generations. So Job died being old and full of days: this too was the specific blessing promised by GOD to the People, in the Prophet Zechariah: Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the ** ¶ Ch.xlii.ver. 12. ‡‡ Ch.xlii. ver. 16, 17. streets streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof* II. The next Person in the drama is Job's WIFE. Let us take her, as she is presented to us, on the common footing. She acts a short part indeed, but a very spirited one. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and diet. Tender and pious! He might see, by this prelude of his Spouse, what he was to expect from his Friends. The Devil indeed assaulted Job, but he seems to have got possession of his Wife. Happiness was so little to be expected with such a Woman, that one almost wonders, that the sacred Writer, when he aims to give us the highest idea of Job's succeeding felicity, did not tell us, in express words, that he lived to bury his Wife. In these modern ages of luxury and polished manners, a Character like this is so little of a prodigy, that both the learned and unlearned are accustomed to read it without much reflection: But such a Woman in the age of Job had been thought to need a Lustration. In the history of the Patriarchs, we have a large account of their Wives; but these are all examples of piety, tenderness, and obedience; the natural growth of old simplicity of manners. Something lower down, indeed, we find a Delilah; but she was of the uncircumcised, a pure Pagan; as, on examination, I believe, this Wife of Job will prove : another very extraordinary circumstance in her Character. For the Patriarchs either took care to marry Believers, or, if haply idolaters, to instruct them in the true Religion; as we may see by the history of Jacob.-Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still † Chap. ii, ver. 9. ⚫ Zech. viii. 4, 5. 2 2 retain retain thine INTEGRITY? THUMMAH, perfectio, that is, Religion. This was altogether in the Pagan mode; Idolaters, as we find in ancient story, generally growing atheistical under calamities *.-Curse God, EARECH, benedicmaledic: here rightly † translated curse. So the Syr. and Arab. versions, Conviciare Deo tuo, This was another Pagan practice, when they had implored or bribed the Gods to no purpose. Thucydi❤ des affords us a terrible instance: When the Athenians in the height of their prosperity went upon the Syracusian Expedition, the Fleet set sail amidst the prayers and hymns of the Adventurers: but on its unhappy issue, these very men, on the point of their fatal dispersion, prosecuted the same Gods with the direst curses and imprecations-Curse God, and Die; that is, offer violence to yourself. Another impiety of Paganism; which, under irretrievable misfortunes, deemed suicide not only just but laudable. A crime much abhorred by the Hebrews, as forbidden by their Law; till, in after-times, they became corrupted by Gentile manners. All this shews the woman to have been a rank idolater. But Job's reply seems to put this suspicion out of doubt: Thou speakest as one of the FOOLISH WOMEN speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil§? A FOOLISH WOMAN is a Hebrew phrase to signify a foreign woman, an Idolater, a Prostitute; for these qualifications were always joined together in their ideas. On this account the Chald. Paraph. explains it, Sicut una de mulieribus quæ operantur ignominiam in domo patris sui. So David, speaking See note [X] at the end of this volume. + See note [Y] at the end of this volume. † — ἀντὶ δ ̓ εὐχῆς τε καὶ παιάνων, μεθ ̓ ὧν ἐξέπλεον, πάλιν τέτων τοῖς ἀνασίοις ἐπιφημίσμασιν ἀφορμᾶσθαι. Lib. vii. § 75. Ed. Hud, Chap. ii. ver. 10, |