{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_8193/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_8193","id":"gutenberg_8193","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8193","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Ecclesiastes -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Bible. Job -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Bible. Proverbs -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by David Starner, Thomas Berger\nand the Distributed Prooreaders team.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SCEPTICS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT\n\nJOB * KOHELETH * AGUR\n\nwith English text translated for the first time from the primitive Hebrew\nas restored on the basis of recent philological discoveries.\n\nby\n\nE. J. Dillon\n\nLate Professor of Comparative Philology and Ancient Armenian at the\nImperial University of Kharkoff; Doctor of Oriental Languages of the\nUniversity of Louvain; Magistrand of the Oriental Faculty of the Imperial\nUniversity of St. Petersburg; Member of the Armenian Academy of Venice;\nMembre de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Asiatique de Paris, &c. &c.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_To ALEXANDER VASSILYEVITCH PASCHKOFF, M.A.\nTHE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED_\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDEDICATORY NOTE\n\n_My Dear Paschkoff,\n\nIn the philosophical problems dealt with by the Sceptics of the Old\nTestament, you will recognise the theme of our numerous and pleasant\ndiscussions during the past sixteen years. Three of these are indelibly\nengraven in my memory, and, if I mistake not, in yours.\n\nThe first took place in St. Petersburg one soft Indian-summer's evening,\nin a cosy room on the Gagarine Quay, from the windows of which we looked\nout with admiration upon the blue expanse of the Neva, as it reflected\nthe burnished gold of the spire of the Fortress church. At that time we\ngazed upon the wavelets of the river and the wonders of the world from\nexactly the same angle of vision.\n\nThe second of these memorable conversations occurred after the lapse of\nnine years. We had met together in the old place, and sauntering out one\nbitterly cold December evening resumed the discussion, walking to and fro\non the moonlit bank of the ice-bound river, until evening merged into\nnight and the moon sank beneath the horizon, leaving us in total\ndarkness, vainly desirous, like Goethe, of \"light, more light.\"\n\nOur last exchange of views took place after six further years had sped\naway, and we stood last August on the summit of the historic M\u00f6nchsberg,\noverlooking the final resting-place of the great Paracelsus. The long and\ninteresting discussions which we had on that occasion, just before\nsetting out in opposite directions, you to the East and I to the West,\nneither of us is likely ever to forget.\n\nIt is in commemoration of these pleasant conversations, and more\nespecially of the good old times, now past for ever, when we looked out\nupon the wavelets of the Neva and the wonders of the world from the same\nangle of vision, that I ask you to allow me to associate your name with\nthis translation of the primitive texts of the Sceptics of the Old\nTestament.\n\nYours affectionately,\n\nE. J. DILLON.\n\nTREBIZOND, January 3, 1895._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPREFACE\n\nA careful perusal of this first English translation of the primitive text\nof \"Job,\" \"Koheleth,\" and the \"Sayings of Agur\" will, I doubt not,\nsatisfy the most orthodox reader that I am fully warranted in\ncharacterising their authors as Sceptics. The epithet, I confess, may\nprove distasteful to many, but the truth, I trust, will be welcome to\nall. It is not easy to understand why any one who firmly believes that\nProvidence is continually educing good from evil should hesitate to admit\nthat it may in like manner allow sound moral principles to be enshrined\nin doubtful or even erroneous philosophical theories. Or, is trust in God\nto be made dependent upon the confirmation or rejection by physical\nscience of, say, the Old Testament account of the origin of the rainbow?\nAgur, \"Job\" and \"Koheleth\" had outgrown the intellectual husks which a\nnarrow, inadequate and erroneous account of God's dealings with man had\ncaused to form around the minds of their countrymen, and they had the\nmoral courage to put their words into harmony with their thoughts.\nClearly perceiving that, whatever the sacerdotal class might say to the\ncontrary, the political strength of the Hebrew people was spent and its\nreligious ideals exploded, they sought to shift the centre of gravity\nfrom speculative theology to practical morality.\n\nThe manner in which they adjusted their hopes, fears, and aspirations to\nthe new conditions, strikes the keynote of their respective characters.\n\"Job,\" looking down upon the world from the tranquil heights of genius,\nis manful, calm, resigned. \"Koheleth,\" shuddering at the gloom that\nenvelops and the pain that convulses all living beings, prefers death to\nlife, and freedom from suffering to \"positive\" pleasure; while Agur,\nrevealing the bitterness bred by dispelled illusions and blasted hopes,\nadministers a severe chastisement to those who first called them into\nbeing. All three[1] reject the dogma of retribution, the doctrine of\neternal life and belief in the coming of a Messiah, over and above which\nthey at times strip the notion of God of its most essential attributes,\nreducing it to the shadow of a mere metaphysical abstraction. This is why\nI call them Sceptics.\n\n\"Job\" and \"Koheleth\" emphatically deny that there is any proof to be\nfound of the so-called moral order in the universe, and they\nunhesitatingly declare that existence is an evil. They would have us\ntherefore exchange our hopes for insight, and warn us that even this is\nvery circumscribed at best. For not only is happiness a mockery, but\nknowledge is a will-o'-the-wisp. Mankind resembles the bricklayer and the\nhodman who help to raise an imposing edifice without any knowledge of the\ngeneral plan. And yet the structure is the outcome of their labour. In\nlike manner this mysterious world is the work of man--the mirror of his\nwill. As his will is, so are his acts, and as his acts are, so is his\nworld. Or as the ancient Hindoos put it:\n\n  \"Before the gods we bend our necks, and yet\n      within the toils of Fate\n  Entangled are the gods themselves. To Fate,\n      then, be all honour given.\n  Yet Fate itself can compass nought, 'tis but the\n      bringer of the meed\n  For every deed that we perform.\n  As then our acts shape our rewards, of what\n      avail are gods or Fate?\n  Let honour therefore be decerned to deeds\n      alone.\"\n\nBut what, I have been frequently asked, will be the effect of all this\nupon theology? Are we to suppose that the writings of these three\nSceptics were admitted into the Canon by mistake, and if not, shall we\nnot have to widen our definition of inspiration until it can be made to\ninclude contributions which every Christian must regard as heterodox? An\nexhaustive reply to this question would need a theological dissertation,\nfor which I have neither desire nor leisure. I may say, however, that\neminent theologians representing various Christian denominations--Roman\nCatholic, Greek Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran--have assured me that\nthey could readily reconcile the dogmas of their respective Churches with\ndoctrines educible from the primitive text of \"Job,\" \"Koheleth,\" and\nAgur, whose ethics they are disposed to identify, in essentials, with the\nteachings of the Sermon on the Mount. With the ways and means by which\nthey effect this reconciliation I am not now concerned.\n\nMy object was neither to attack a religious dogma, nor to provoke a\ntheological controversy, but merely to put the latest results of\nphilological science within the reach of him who reads as he runs. And I\nfeel confident that the reader who can appreciate the highest forms of\npoetry, or who has anxiously pondered over the problems of God,\nimmortality, the origin of evil, &c., will peruse the writings of \"Job,\"\n\"Koheleth\" and Agur with a lively interest, awakened, and sustained not\nmerely by the extrinsic value which they possess as historical documents,\nbut by their intrinsic merits as precious contributions to the literature\nand philosophy of the world.\n\nE. J. DILLON.\n\nCONSTANTINOPLE, _New Year's Day, 1895._\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[1] In Agur's case, this is but an inference from his first saying, but\n    an inference which few would think of calling in question.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCONTENTS\n\nTHE POEM OF JOB\n  HEBREW PHILOSOPHY\n  THE PROBLEM OF THE POEM\n  JOB'S METHOD OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM\n  DATE OF THE COMPOSITION\n  THE TEXT AND ITS RECONSTRUCTION\n  INTERPOLATIONS\n  JOB'S THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTIONS\n  ANALYSIS OF THE POEM\n\nKOHELETH\n  CONDITION OF THE TEXT\n  PRIMITIVE FORM OF THE BOOK\n  KOHELETH'S THEORY OF LIFE\n  PRACTICAL WISDOM\n  KOHELETH'S PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE\n  SOURCES OF KOHELETH'S PHILOSOPHY\n\nAGUR THE AGNOSTIC\n  AGUR, SON OF YAKEH\n  FORM AND CONTENTS OF THE SAYINGS OF AGUR\n  DATE OF COMPOSITION\n  AGUR'S PHILOSOPHY\n\nTHE POEM OF JOB (TRANSLATION OF THE RESTORED TEXT)\n\nTHE SPEAKER (TRANSLATION OF THE RESTORED TEXT)\n\nTHE SAYINGS OF AGUR (TRANSLATION OF THE RESTORED TEXT)\n\nINDEX\n\n\n\n\nTHE POEM OF JOB\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHEBREW PHILOSOPHY\n\nAccording to a theory which was still in vogue a few years ago, the\nancient races of mankind were distinguished from each other no less by\ntheir intellectual equipment than by their physical peculiarities. Thus\nthe Semites were supposed to be characterised, among other things, by an\ninborn aptitude for historical narrative and an utter lack of the mental\nsuppleness, ingenuity, and sharp incisive vision indispensable for the\nstudy of the problems of philosophy; while their neighbours, the Aryans,\ndevoid of historical talent, were held to be richly endowed with all the\nessential qualities of mind needed for the cultivation of epic poetry and\nabstruse metaphysics. This theory has since been abandoned, and many of\nthe alleged facts that once seemed to support it have been shown to be\nunwarranted assumptions. Thus, the conclusive proof, supplied by Biblical\ncriticism, of the untrustworthiness of the historical books of the Old\nTestament, has removed one alleged difference between Aryans and Semites,\nwhile the discoveries which led to the reconstruction of the primitive\npoem of Job and of the treatise of Koheleth have undermined the basis of\nthe other. For these two works deal exclusively with philosophical\nproblems, and, together with the Books of Proverbs and Jesus Sirach, are\nthe only remains that have come down to us of the ethical and\nmetaphysical speculations of the ancient Hebrews whose descendants have\nso materially contributed to further this much-maligned branch of human\nknowledge. And if we may judge by what we know of these two books, we\nhave ample grounds for regretting that numerous other philosophical\ntreatises which were written between the fourth and the first centuries\nB.C. were deemed too abstruse, too irrelevant, or too heterodox to find a\nplace in the Jewish Canon.[2] For the Book of Job is an unrivalled\nmasterpiece, the work of one in whom poetry was no mere special faculty\ncultivated apart from his other gifts, but the outcome of the harmonious\nwholeness of healthy human nature, in which upright living, untrammelled\nthought, deep mental vision, and luxuriant imagination combined to form\nthe individual. Hence the poem is a true reflex of the author's mind: it\ndissolves and blends in harmonious union elements that appeared not\nmerely heterogeneous, but wholly incompatible, and realises, with the\nconcreteness of history, the seemingly unattainable idea which Lucretius\nhad the mind to conceive but lacked the artistic hand to execute; in a\nword, it is the fruit of the intimate union of that philosophy which,\nreckless of results, dares to clip even angels' wings, and of the art\nwhich possesses the secret of painting its unfading pictures with the\ndelicate tints of the rainbow. Rich fancy and profound thought co-operate\nto produce a _tertium quid_--a visible proof that the beautiful is\none with the true--for which neither literature nor philosophy possesses\na name. It is no wonder, then, that this unique poem, which gives\nadequate utterance to abstract thought, truly and forcibly states the\ndoubts and misgivings which harrow the souls of thinking men of all ages\nand nations, and helps them to lift a corner of the veil of delusion and\nget a glimpse of the darkness of the everlasting Night beyond, should\nappeal to the reader of the nineteenth century with much greater force\nthan to the Jews of olden times, who were accustomed to gauge the\nsublimity of imaginative poetry and the depth of philosophic speculation\nby the standard of orthodoxy and the bias of nationality.\n\nThe Book of Job, from which Pope Gregory the Great fancied he could piece\ntogether the entire system of Catholic theology, and which Thomas of\nAquin regarded as a sober history, is now known to be a regular poem,\nbut, as Tennyson truly remarked, \"the greatest poem whether of ancient or\nmodern times,\" and the diction of which even Luther instinctively felt to\nbe \"magnificent and sublime as no other book of Scripture.\" And it is\nexclusively in this light, as one of the masterpieces of the world's\nliterature, that it will be considered in the following pages. Whatever\nreligious significance it may be supposed to possess over and above, as\none of the canonical books of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, will,\nit is hoped, remain unaffected by this treatment, which is least of all\ncontroversial. The flowers that yield honey to the bee likewise delight\nthe bee-keeper with their perfume and the poet with their colours, and\nthere is no adequate reason why the magic verse which strikes a\nresponsive chord in the soul of lovers of high art, and starts a new\ntrain of ideas in the minds of serious thinkers, should thereby lose any\nof the healing virtues it may have heretofore possessed for the suffering\nsouls of the believing.\n\nBut viewed even as a mere work of art, it would be hopeless to endeavour\nto press it into the frame of any one of the received categories of\nliterary composition, as is evident from the fact that authorised and\nunauthorised opinion on the subject has touched every extreme, and still\ncontinues oscillating to-day. Many commentators still treat it as a\ncurious chapter of old-world history narrated with scrupulous fidelity by\nthe hero or an eye-witness, others as a philosophical dialogue; several\nscholars regard it as a genuine drama, while not a few enthusiastically\naver that it is the only epic poem ever written by a Hebrew. In truth, it\npartakes of the nature of each and every one of these categories, and is\nyet circumscribed by the laws and limits of none of them. In form, it is\nmost nearly akin to the drama, with which we should be disposed to\nidentify it if the characters of the prologue and epilogue were\nintroduced as _dramatis personae_ in action. But their doing and\nenduring are presupposed as accomplished facts, and employed merely as a\nfoil to the dialogues, which alone are the work of the author. Perhaps\nthe least erroneous way succinctly to describe what in fact is a\n_unicum_ would be to call it a psychological drama.\n\nKoheleth, or the Preacher, is likewise a literary puzzle which for\ncenturies has baffled the efforts of commentators and aroused the\nmisgivings of theologians. Regarded by many as a _vade mecum_ of\nmaterialists, by some as an eloquent sermon on the fear of God, and by\nothers as a summary of sceptical philosophy, it is impossible to analyse\nand classify it without having first eliminated all those numerous\nlater-date insertions which, without improving the author's theology,\nutterly obscure his meaning and entirely spoil his work. When, by the aid\nof text criticism, we have succeeded in weeding it of the parasitic\ngrowth of ages, we have still to allow for the changing of places of\nnumerous authentic passages either by accident or design, the effects of\nwhich are oftentimes quite as misleading as those of the deliberate\ninterpolations. The work thus restored, although one, coherent and\nlogical, is still susceptible of various interpretations, according to\nthe point of view of the reader, none of which, however, can ignore the\nsignificant fact that the sceptically ideal basis of Koheleth's\nmetaphysics is identical with that of Buddha, Kant, and Schopenhauer, and\nadmirably harmonises with the ethics of Job and the pessimism of the New\nTestament.\n\nThe Sayings of Agur, on the contrary, tell their own interesting story,\nwithout need of note or commentary, to him who possesses a fair knowledge\nof Hebrew grammar, and an average allowance of mother wit. The lively\nversifier, the keenness of whose sense of humour is excelled only by the\nbitterness of his satire, could ill afford to be obscure. A member of the\nliterary fraternity which boasts the names of Lucian and Voltaire, a firm\nbeliever in the force of common sense and rudimentary logic, Agur\nridicules the theologians of his day with a malicious cruelty which is\nexplained, if not warranted, by the pretensions of omniscience and the\npractice of intolerance that provoked it. The unanswerable argument which\nJahveh considered sufficient to silence his servant Job, Agur deems\neffective against the dogmatical doctors of his own day:\n\n    \"Who has ascended into heaven and come down again?\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Such an one would I question about God: What is his name?\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[2] Job and Ecclesiastes were inserted in the Jewish and, one may add,\n    the Christian Canon, solely on the strength of passages which the\n    authors of these compositions never even saw, and which flatly\n    contradict the main theses of their works.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE PROBLEM OF THE POEM\n\nPurged of all later interpolations and restored as far as possible to the\nform it received from the hand of its author, the poem of Job is the most\nstriking presentation of the most obscure and fascinating problem that\never puzzled and tortured the human intellect: how to reconcile the\nexistence of evil, not merely with the fundamental dogmas of the ancient\nJewish faith, but with any form of Theism whatever. Stated in the terms\nin which the poet--whom for convenience sake we shall identify with his\nhero[3] manifestly conceived it, it is this: Can God be the creator of\nall things and yet not be responsible for evil?\n\nThe Infinite Being who laid the earth's foundation, \"shut in the sea with\ndoors,\" whose voice is thunder and whose creatures are all things that\nhave being, is, we trust, moral and good. But it is His omnipotence that\nstrikes us most forcibly. Almighty in theory, He is all active in fact,\nand nothing that happens in the universe is brought about even indirectly\nby any one but Himself. There are no second causes at work, no chance, no\nlaws of nature, no subordinate agents, nothing that is not the immediate\nmanifestation of His free will.[4] This is evident to our senses. But\nwhat is equally obvious is that His acts do not tally with His attribute\nof goodness, and that no facts known or imaginable can help us to bridge\nover the abyss between the infinite justice ascribed to Him and the\ncrying wrongs that confront us in His universe, whithersoever we turn.[5]\nHis rule is such a congeries of evils that even the just man often\nwelcomes death as a release, and Job himself with difficulty overcame the\ntemptation to end his sufferings by suicide. All the cut-and-dried\nexplanations of God's conduct offered by His human advocates merely\nrender the problem more complicated. His professional apologists are\n\"weavers of lies,\" and contend for Him \"with deception,\" and, worse than\nall else, He Himself has never revealed to His creatures any truth more\nsoothing than the fact they set out with, that the problem is for ever\ninsoluble. Wisdom \"is hid from the eyes of all living,\"[6] and the dead\nare in \"the land of darkness and of gloom,\"[7] whence there is no issue.\n\nThe theological views prevalent in the days of the poet, as expounded by\nthe three friends of Job, instead of suggesting some way out of the\ndifficulty were in flagrant contradiction with fact. They appealed to the\ntraditional theory and insisted on having that accepted as the reality.\nAnd it was one of the saddest theories ever invented. Virtue was at best\na mere matter of business, one of the crudest forms of utilitarianism, a\nbargain between Jahveh and His creatures. As asceticism in ancient India\nwas rewarded with the spiritual gift of working miracles, so upright\nliving was followed in Judea by material wealth, prosperity, a numerous\nprogeny and all the good things that seem to make life worth living. Such\nat least was the theory, and those who were satisfied with their lot had\nlittle temptation to find fault with it for the sake of those who were\nnot. In sober reality, however, the obligation was very one-sided:\nJahveh, who occasionally failed to carry out His threats, observed or\nrepudiated His solemn promises as He thought fit, whereas those among His\ncreatures who faithfully fulfilled their part of the contract were never\nsure of receiving their stipulated wage in the promised coin. And at that\ntime none other was current: there was no future life looming in the dim\ndistance with intensified rewards and punishments wherewith to redress\nthe balance of this. And it sadly needed redressing. The victims of\nseeming injustice naturally felt that they were being hardly dealt with.\nAnd as if to make confusion worse confounded, their neighbours, who had\nridden roughshod over all law, human and divine, were frequently exempt\nfrom misfortune, lived on the fat of the land, and enjoyed a monopoly of\nthe divine blessings. To Job, whose consciousness of his own\nrighteousness was clearer and less questionable than the justice of his\nCreator, this theory of retribution seemed unworthy of belief.\n\nThe creation of this good God, then, is largely leavened with evil for\nwhich--all things being the work of His hands--He, and He alone, is\nanswerable. There was no devil in those olden times upon whose broad\nshoulders the responsibility for sickness, suffering, misery and death\ncould be conveniently shifted. The Satan or Adversary is still one of the\nsons of God who, like all his brethren, has free access to the council\nchamber of the Most High, where he is wont to take a critical, somewhat\ncynical but not wholly incorrect view of motives and of men. In the\ngovernment of the world he has neither hand nor part, and his\ninterference in the affairs of Job is the result of a special permission\naccorded him by the Creator. God alone is the author of good _and of\nevil_,[8] and the thesis to be demonstrated by His professional\napologists consists in showing that the former is the outflow of His\nmercy, and the latter the necessary effect of His justice acting upon the\ndepraved will of His creatures. But the proof was not forthcoming.\nPersonal suffering might reasonably be explained in many cases as the\nmeet and inevitable wage for wrong-doing; but assuredly not in all. Job\nhimself was a striking instance of unmerited punishment. Even Jahveh\nsolemnly declares him to be just and perfect; and Job was admittedly no\nsolitary exception; he was the type of a numerous class of righteous,\nwronged and wretched mortals, unnamed and unknown:\n\n  \"Omnes illacrymabiles....\n               ignotique longa\n  Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.\"\n\nJob is ready to admit that God, no doubt, is just and good in theory, but\nhe cannot dissemble the obvious fact that His works in the universe are\nneither; indeed, if we may judge the tree by its fruits, His\n_r\u00e9gime_ is the rule of an oriental and almighty despot whose will\nand pleasure is the sole moral law. And that will is too often\nundistinguishable from malice of the blackest kind. Thus\n\n  \"He destroyeth the upright and the wicked,\n  When his scourge slayeth at unawares.\n  He scoffeth at the trial of the innocent;\n  The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.\"\n\nIn a word, the poet proclaims that the current theories of traditional\ntheology were disembodied, not incarnate in the moral order of the world,\nhad, in fact, nowhere taken root.\n\nThe two most specious arguments with which it was sought to prop up this\ntottering theological system consisted in maintaining that the wicked are\noften punished and the good recompensed in their offspring--a kind of\nspiritual entail in which the tenant for life is denied the usufruct for\nthe sake of heirs he never knew--and that such individual claims as were\nleft unadjusted by this curious arrangement were merged in those of the\ncommunity at large and should be held to be settled in full as long as\nthe weal of the nation was assured. In other words, the individual sows\nand his offspring or the nation reaps the harvest. But Job rejects both\npleas as illusory and immoral, besides which, they leave the frequent\nprosperity of the unrighteous unexplained. \"Wherefore,\" he asks, \"do the\nwicked live, become old, yea wax mighty in strength?\" The reply that the\nfathers having eaten sour grapes, the children's teeth will be set on\nedge, is, he contends, no answer to the objection; it merely intensifies\nit. For he who sows should reap, and he who sins should suffer. After\ndeath the most terrible punishment meted out to the posterity of\ncriminals is powerless to affect their mouldering dust. That, surely,\ncannot be accepted as a vindication of justice, human or divine.\n\n  \"Ye say: God hoards punishment for the children.\n  Let him rather requite the wicked himself that he may feel it!\n  His own eyes should behold his downfall,\n  And he himself should drain the Almighty's wrath.\n  If his sons are honoured, he will not know it;\n  And if dishonoured, he will not perceive it.\n  Only in his own flesh doth he feel pain,\n  And for his own soul will he lament.\"\n\nAs to the latter argument, that the well-being of the nation was a\nsettlement in full of the individual's claims to happiness, it was\nequally irrelevant, even had the principle underlying it been confirmed\nby experience. Granting that a certain wholesale kind of equity was\nadministered, why must the individual suffer for no fault of his own?\nWherein lies the justice of a Being who, credited with omnipotence,\npermits that by a sweep of the wild hurricane of disaster, \"green leaves\nwith yellow mixed are torn away\"?\n\nBut the contention that, viewing the individual merely as a unit of the\naggregate, justice would be found to be dealt out fairly on the whole,\nran counter to experience. The facts were dead against it. The Hebrew\nnation had fared as badly among neighbouring states as Job among his\nfriends and countrymen. In this respect the sorely tried individual was\nthe type of his nation. The destruction of the kingdom of Samaria which\nhad occurred nearly two hundred years before and the captivity of Judah,\nwhich was not yet at an end, gave its death-blow to the theory. \"The\ntents of robbers prosper and they that provoke Shaddai[9] are secure.\"\n\nIn truth, there was but one issue out of the difficulty: divine justice\nmight not be bounded by time or space; the law of compensation might have\na larger field than our earth for its arena; a future life might afford\n\"time\" and opportunity to right the wrongs of the present, and all end\nwell in the best of future worlds. This explanation would have set doubts\nat rest and settled the question for at least two thousand years; and it\nseemed such a necessary postulate to the fathers of the Church, who\nviewed the matter in the light of Christian revelation, that they\nactually put into Job's mouth the words which he would have uttered had\nhe lived in their own days and been a member of the true fold. And they\neffected this with a pious recklessness of artistic results and of\nelementary logic that speaks better for their intentions than for their\naesthetic taste. In truth, Job knows absolutely nothing of a future life,\nand his friends, equally unenlightened, see nothing for it but to\n\"discourse wickedly for God,\" and \"utter lies on His behalf.\"[10] There\nwas, in fact, no third course. Indeed, if the hero or his friends had\neven suspected the possibility of a solution based upon a life beyond the\ntomb, the problem on which the book is founded would not have existed. To\nground, therefore, the doctrines of the Resurrection, the Atonement, &c.,\nupon alleged passages of the poem of Job is tantamount to inferring the\nsquareness of a circle from its perfect rotundity. In the Authorised\nVersion of the Bible the famous verses, which have probably played a more\nimportant part in the intellectual history of mankind than all the books\nof the Old Testament put together, run thus: \"For I know _that_ my\nredeemer liveth, and _that_ he shall stand at the latter _day_\nupon the earth: and _though_ after my skin _worms_ destroy this\n_body_, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for\nmyself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; _though_ my\nreins be consumed within me.\"[11]\n\nNow this, it is hardly necessary to say, is not  a translation from the\npoem nor from any known text of it, but the embodiment of the salutary\nbeliefs of well-intentioned theologians--of St. Jerome among others--\nmomentarily forgetful of the passage: \"Will ye speak wickedly for God?\"\nThe Christian conception of a Redeemer would, had he but known it, have\nproved balm to the heart of the despairing hero. As a matter of mere\nfact, his own hope at that critical moment was less sublime and very much\nless Christian: the coming of an avenger who would punish his enemies and\nrehabilitate his name. It was the one worldly and vain longing that still\nbound him to the earth. Other people demanded happiness as their reward\nfor virtue, too often undistinguishable from vice; Job challenged the\nexpress approval of the Deity, asked only that he should not be\nconfounded with vulgar sinners. The typical perfect man, struck down with\na loathsome disease, doomed to a horrible death, alone in his misery,\nderided by his enemies, and, worse than all, loathed as a common criminal\nby those near and dear to him, gives his friends and enemies, society and\ntheologians, the lie emphatic--nay, he goes the length of affirming that\nGod Himself has, failed in His duty towards him. \"Know, then, that God\nhath wronged me.\"[12] His conscience, however, tells him that inasmuch as\nthere is such a thing as eternal justice, a time will come when the truth\nwill be proclaimed and his honour fully vindicated; Shaddai will then\nyearn for the work of His hands, but it will be too late, \"For now I must\nlay myself down in the dust; and Thou shalt seek me, but I shall not be.\"\nAnd it is to this conviction, not to a belief in future retribution, that\nthe hero gives utterance in the memorable passage in question:\n\n  \"But I know that my avenger liveth,\n  Though it be at the end upon my dust;\n  My witness will avenge these things,\n  And a curse alight upon mine enemies.\"\n\nHe knows nothing whatever of the subsistence of our cumbrous clods of\nclay after they have become the food of worms and pismires; indeed, he is\nabsolutely certain that by the sleep of death\n\n      \"we end\n  The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks\n  That flesh is heir to.\"\n\nAnd he emphasises his views in a way that should have given food for\nwholesome reflection to his commentators.\n\n  \"There is a future for the tree,\n  And hope remaineth to the palm;\n  Cut down, it will sprout again,\n  And its tender branch will not cease.\n\n  \"Though its roots wax old in the earth,\n  And its stock lie buried in mould,\n  Yet through vapour of water will it bud,\n  And put forth boughs like a plant.\n\n  \"But man dieth and lieth outstretched;\n  He giveth up the ghost, where is he then?\n  He lieth down and riseth not up;\n  Till heaven be no more he shall not awake.\"[13]\n\nNothing could well be further removed from the comforting hope of a\nfuture life, the resurrection of the body, and eternal rewards, than this\nunshaken belief that Death is our sole redeemer from the terrible evils\nof life.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[3] Although the former was a Jew and the latter a Gentile.\n\n[4] _Cf._ Translation, strophe ci.:\n\n      \"Is not the soul of every living thing in his hand,\n      And the breath of all mankind?\"\n\n    Strophe civ.:\n\n      \"With him is strength and wisdom,\n      The erring one and his error are his.\"\n\n[5] Strophe cxcii.-cxciii.:\n\n      \"Look upon me and tremble,\n      And lay your hand upon your mouth!\n      When I remember I am dismayed,\n      And trembling taketh hold on my flesh.\"\n\n    Strophe ccxxi.:\n\n      \"Why do the times of judgment depend upon the Almighty,\n      And yet they who know him do not see his days?\n\n[6] Strophe ccxxxiv.\n\n[7] Strophe lxxxix.\n\n[8] \"The erring one and his error are his\" (God's): strophe civ. _Cf_.\n    also strophe cvii.\n\n[9] God.\n\n[10] Strophe cxi.\n\n[11] Job xix. 25-27. The Revised Version gives the passage as follows:\n    \"But I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand up at\n    the last upon the earth: and after my skin hath been thus destroyed,\n    yet from my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and\n    mine eyes shall behold, and not another.\"\n\n[12] Strophe clxix.\n\n[13] Job, strophes cxxiv.-cxxvi. of my English translation.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJOB'S METHOD OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM\n\nIt is perhaps hardly necessary to point out that the doctrine of eternal\npains and rewards as laid down by the Christian Church, unless reinforced\nby faith, neither solves the problem nor simplifies it. If the truth must\nbe told, it seems to unenlightened reason to entangle it more hopelessly\nthan before. In simple terms and in its broadest aspect the question may\nbe stated as follows: God created man under conditions of His own\nchoosing which necessarily led to the life-long misery of countless\nmillions upon earth and their never-ending torments in hell. To the\nquestion, Did He know the inevitable effect of His creative act, the\nanswer is, God is omniscient. To the query, Could He have selected other\nand more humane conditions of existence for His creature--conditions so\nadjusted that, either with or without probation, man would have been\nultimately happy? the reply is, God is almighty.\n\nInvoluntarily, then, the question forces itself upon us, Is He all-good?\nCan that Being be deemed good who, moved by no necessity, free to create\nor to abstain from creating, at liberty to create for happiness or for\nmisery, calls mankind into existence under such conditions and\nsurroundings that myriads are miserable, so unutterably miserable, that,\ncompared with their tortures, the wretch bleeding and quivering on the\nwheel is lolling in the lap of enjoyment? Why did God make man under such\nconditions? Or at least how are we to reconcile His having done so with\nHis attribute of goodness? To this question there are many replies but no\nanswer, the former being merely attempts to explain the chronic effects\nof the primordial ethical poison commonly called original sin.\n\nJob's main objection to the theological theories in vogue among his\ncontemporaries, and, indeed, to all conceivable explanations of the\ndifficulty, is far more weighty than at first sight appears. Everything,\nhe tells us--if anything--is the work of God's hands; and as pain,\nsuffering, evil, are everywhere predominant, it is not easy to understand\nin what sense God can be said to be good. The poet does not formulate the\nargument, of which this is the gist, in very precise terms, nor press it\nhome to its last conclusions. But he leaves no doubt about his meaning.\nSome men are relatively good by nature, others wicked; but all men were\ncreated by God and act in accordance with the disposition they received\nfrom Him. If that disposition or character brought forth sin and evil,\nthese then are God's work, not man's, and He alone is responsible\ntherefor. The individual who performs an act through an agent is rightly\ndeemed to have done it himself. A man, therefore, who, being free to do a\ncertain thing or to leave it undone, and perfectly aware of the nature of\nits necessary consequences, performs it, is held to be answerable for the\nresults, should they prove mischievous. Much greater is his\nresponsibility if, instead of being restricted to the choice between\nundertaking a work certain to prove pernicious and abstaining from it, he\nwas free to select a third course and to accomplish it in such a way that\nthe result would not be evil, but unmixed good. In this case it would\nhardly seem possible to exonerate the doer from a charge of wanton\nmalice, diabolic in degree. And such is the position in which many\ntheologians seem--to those who view things in the light of reason--to\nhave placed God Himself. It was open to Him, they maintain, to create or\nto refrain from creating. Having declared for the former alternative, He\nis chargeable with the consequences. The consequences, however, need not\nhave been evil; He might, had He so willed it, have endowed His creature\nwith such qualities and placed him in such surroundings that, without\nceasing to be man, he would never have fallen at all. Yet it did not\nplease Him to adopt that course. This admission, rationalists urge, is\nconclusive as to the origin of sin and evil.\n\nBut the arguments are not yet exhausted. Even then the Creator might have\nmade everything right by an act which it seems impossible to distinguish\nfrom elementary justice. Had He regarded the first man who brought sin\ninto the world as a mere individual, and treated him as such--and this,\ntheologians assure us, He could easily have done[14]--He might have\npunished him as an individual, and the matter would have been at an end.\nBut instead of this, He contemplated him as the type and representative\nof the human race, and decreed that his sin should, like a subtle\nspiritual poison, infect the soul of every man coming into the world. In\nother words, God, who is supposed to hate evil so profoundly that He\ndamns for ever in hell a man guilty of one single \"mortal\" transgression,\nenacted that if one sin were committed it should be needlessly made to\nengender myriads of other sins, and that the tiny seed of evil which was\nfirst thrown upon the earth by His creature in a moment of pardonable\nweakness, and might have so easily been trampled out, should take root,\nsprout up and grow into a vast Upas tree whose poisonous branches\novershadow all creation. This proposition, it is contended, explicitly\ntaxes God, if not with the sole authorship of sin and evil, at least with\nthe moral responsibility for propagating it. And this is the prevailing\nview among modern apologists.\n\nAs to the origin of evil, it is to be sought for, theologians have\ndiscovered, in the free will with which God endowed man. This, they\nallege, shifts all the responsibility on the human creature because,\ninstead of evil, he might have chosen good. Unfortunately, the same\nargument would seem to apply to the Creator Himself.[15] He, too, being\nomnipotent, might have chosen good instead of evil subjects, and created\nhuman beings whose acts would have been blameless and virtuous, their\nwill remaining what it is. Further, not having done this and having\nneedlessly allowed an abyss to be made by sin between Himself and the\nfirst man, it was still open to Him to have abstained from widening it\nuntil it became an impassable gulf between Himself and the entire human\nrace. But He did not abstain; instead of localising, He deliberately  and\nwantonly spread the evil, and  the ruin that overwhelmed all mankind\ncannot therefore be said to have sprung from the will of the race, but\nfrom His own. Again, the interposition of a free will between God and\nevil, it is urged, affords no real solution of the problem, for the\nquestion still remains, why were the workings of that free will evil and\nnot good? Obviously because such was its God-created nature; for the\naction of outward circumstances upon the will neither builds up nor\nmodifies this nature, but simply discloses it to our view.\n\nThese ideas were adopted, developed and defended by a few of the most\nprofound Christian philosophers of the early Church, and most ably of all\nby Scotus Erigena,[16] who held that the origin of evil which cannot be\nsought for in God must not be placed _in the free will of man_,\nbecause the latter hypothesis would still leave the responsibility with\nthe Creator, the human will being His own handiwork.\n\nAt the root of this argument lies yet another consideration upon which\nunbelieving thinkers rely still more: it is drawn from the alleged\nincompatibility between the conception of a created being and free will,\nand will be noticed presently. It is commonly regarded as the principal\ndifficulty which Theists and Pantheists are condemned continually to\nencounter without ever being able to explain--the rock, so to say, upon\nwhich their optimistic systems strike, and are shattered to\npieces--unless protected by the armour of supernatural faith.\n\nBut besides the Christian and Pantheistic theories, there is another\nexplanation of the origin of evil offered by the religion of more than\none-third of the human race. It is a theory which can readily be labelled\nand libelled by the most unphilosophical reader, but cannot be grasped\nand appreciated without serious study and reflection by the most\nintelligent, for it is based upon the doctrine that time, space and\ncausality have no existence outside the human mind.[17] The world which\nwe see and know, therefore, and everything it contains is \"such stuff as\ndreams are made of\"--the woof and warp being evolved from, and interwoven\nby, our own minds. Underlying the innumerable illusive appearances which\nwe call the world is a reality, a being or force which is one. We and\neverything else are but manifestations, in time and space, of this one\nreality with which, however, each and every one of us is at bottom\nidentical and whose sole attribute is unity. This force or will manifests\nitself in myriads of facets, so to say, in the universe, and these\nmanifestations are not good, constitute, indeed, a sort of fall.\nIntelligence is not one of the primary attributes of this eternal will.\nIt attained to clear consciousness and knowledge only in man and then for\nthe first time perceived that the existence for which it yearned is evil\nand not good. Man therefore is his own work; and existence, as it\nconstitutes a fall, is its own punishment; for his life is a series of\ninane desires which, when momentarily satiated, are immediately succeeded\nby others equally vain, fruitless and hollow, and the cessation of desire\nis the beginning of tedium which is oftentimes still less endurable,\nseeing that it leaves little room for hope.\n\n  \"Life which ye prize is long-drawn agony;\n  Only its pains abide, its pleasures are\n  As birds which light and fly.\"\n\nEvery wish springs from want which causes pain, the attainment of the\nwished-for object--commonly called pleasure--is but the cessation of that\npain: in other words it is a mere negation. Man's life is a never-ending\noscillation between pleasure and pain: the former mere illusion, the\nlatter a dread reality. The origin of this and of all other evil is\nindividual existence, and individual existence is the free act of the one\nsubstance or force which is identical with each and all of us.\n\nThis theory excludes creation. For free will is utterly incompatible with\nthe state of a created being;[18] because _operari sequitur\nesse_--_i.e._, the operation, the working of every being, must be\nthe necessary result of its qualities which are themselves known only by\nthe acts they bring forth. If these acts be praiseworthy, the qualities\nare good: if reprehensible, they are bad. But if the acts are to be free,\nthey should be neither good nor bad. A being therefore to be perfectly\nfree should have no qualities at all--_i.e._, should not be created.\nFor it must be borne in mind that it is not the motives that impart to\nthe will its ethical quality. Motives are accidental and operate in the\nsame way as the rays of the sun falling upon a tree or a flower: they\nreveal the nature of the object but are powerless to change it, for\nbetter or for worse.[19] But if this be so, one may ask, why do we feel\nsorrow, shame, repentance for acts which we were not free to perform or\nabstain from performing? Because we are \"metaphysically\" free, that is to\nsay, our inborn disposition from which they necessarily emanate, is the\nwork of our free will, which specific acts are not. No doubt, when we do\nright or wrong, we are conscious that we might have acted\ndifferently--_had we willed it_. But this proves nothing; the\nall-important question being, could we, under the circumstances, have\nwilled otherwise than we did? And to this the reply is an emphatic\nnegative. But for our personal character, be it good or evil, we are\nanswerable, and therefore likewise for the acts that flow from it with\nthe rigorous necessity characteristic of all causality. For individuality\nin the human race is identical with character, and as individuality is\nthe work of our own free will exercised outside the realm of time and\nspace, we are responsible for it, and conscious of the responsibility,\nalthough not of the manner in which it was incurred.\n\nOur acts, therefore, and they only, show us what we really are; our\nsufferings what we deserve. The former are the necessary outcome of our\ncharacter which external circumstances, in the guise of motives, call\ninto play; just as gravitation is acted upon when we shake an apple off\nthe tree. Our deeds then being the inevitable resultant of that\nself-created character acted upon by motives, must consequently follow\nwith the same necessity as any other link in the chain of cause and\neffect. The knowledge of our character and the foreknowledge of these\noutward events which, in the unbroken chain of cause and effect, act upon\nit, would suffice to enable us to foresee our future as readily as\nastronomers foresee eclipses of the sun and moon. Now if the root of all\nevil be individuality, the essence of all morality is self-denial; and no\nact performed for the purpose of obtaining happiness, temporal or\neternal, is moral. The evil and pain, therefore, which befall us upon\nearth cannot be regarded as the retribution for the deeds done in this\nlife; for these are necessary and inevitable. They are the fruits of our\ncharacter whence these acts emanate; and it is only our character which\nis our own work. With the ethical nature of that character each\nindividual gradually grows acquainted as well in his own case as in that\nof his neighbour's, solely from a study of his own acts, which often\nastonish himself quite as much as his friends.\n\nBrahmanism and Buddhism symbolized these notions in the somewhat gross\nbut only intelligible form in which the mind can readily grasp them,\nviz., in the dogma of the transmigration of souls, according to which a\nman's good deeds and bad follow him like his shadow from one existence to\nanother, and in this life he expiates the sins or enjoys the fruits of a\nprevious existence:[20]\n\n                      \"Each man's life\n  The outcome of his former living is;\n  The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes,\n  The bygone right breeds bliss.\n\n  \"That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields!\n  The sesamum was sesamum, the corn\n  Was corn. The Silence and the Darkness knew!\n  So is man's fate born.\"\n\nIn the former religion, Brahma, who is identical with all of us, produces\nthe world by a kind of fall from his primeval state and remains therein\nuntil he has redeemed himself. In the latter there is no god; man being\nhis own handiwork and sin and evil the result of his blind striving after\nindividual existence. It is however in his power, and in his alone, to\nright the wrong and remedy the evil, by starving out the fatal hunger for\nlife. And in this work, faith, supplication and sacrifice avail him\nnothing.\n\n  \"Pray not! the Darkness will not brighten! Ask\n  Nought from the Silence, for it cannot speak!\n  Vex not your mournful minds with pious pains!\n  Ah, brothers, sisters! seek\n  Naught from the helpless gods by gift and hymn,\n  Nor bribe with blood, nor feed with fruits and cake;\n  Within yourself deliverance must be sought:\n  Each man his prison makes.\"\n\nThe ethical bearing of this view is more easily discerned than its\nmetaphysical basis. Individual existence with its tantalising mirage of\npleasures being the root of all evil, the first step towards finding a\nremedy is to recognise this truth, to obtain insight into the heart of\nthings athwart the veil of Maya or delusion. The conviction that all\nbeings are not merely brothers but one and the same essence, is the death\nof egotistic desire, of the pernicious distinction between me and thee,\nand the birth of pity, love and sympathy for all men. And this is a very\nold doctrine. In India it was taught in the Veda and the Vedanta under\nthe formula _tat tvam asi_--thou art this--_i.e._, individual\ndiffers not essentially from individual, nor a man from the whole human\nrace. He who obtains this insight and perceives how sorrow is shadow to\nlife, who weans his thirst for existence, seeks not, strives not, wrongs\nnot, starves out his passions, resigns himself wholly to pain and\nsuffering as to \"ills that flow from foregone wrongfulness\" and asks for\nno clue from the Silence which can utter naught, he is truly blessed and\nreleased from all misery forever. He glides \"lifeless to nameless quiet,\nnameless joy, blessed Nirvana.\"\n\nIt is probable, not to say certain, that it was an intuition of this kind\nthat finally reconciled Job with the grey monotony of misery and seeming\ninjustice which characterises all human existence and enabled him to\nresign himself cheerfully to whatever might befall. This at least would\nseem to be the only reasonable construction of which Jahveh's apparition\nand discourse are susceptible. That they are resorted to by the poet\nsolely as an image and symbol of the inner illumination of his hero's\nintellect, is evident to most readers. Nothing that Jahveh has to\ndisclose to Job and his three friends even remotely resembles a clue to\nthe problem that exercised them. The human mind would be unable to grasp\na solution if any existed, for it possesses no forms in which to\napprehend it. This will soon become apparent even to the\nnon-philosophical reader who endeavours to _reason_ about a state in\nwhich time, space, _and causality_ have no existence. But there is\nno solution. Jahveh virtually asks, as Buddha had asked before:\n\n  \"Shall any gazer see with mortal eyes,\n  Or any searcher know with mortal mind?\n  Veil after veil will lift--but there must be\n  Veil upon veil behind.\"\n\nUnless we assume some such sudden illumination of the mind as Buddha\nobtained under the shadow of the fig-tree and the author of the 73rd\nPsalm among the ruins of the kingdom of Juda, it is impossible to account\nfor Job's unforeseen and entire resignation, or to bring his former\ndefiant utterances into harmony with the humble sentiments to which he\nnow gives expression. For nothing but his mind had meanwhile undergone a\nchange. All the elements of the problem remained what they were. The\nevils that had fired his indignation were not denied by their presumptive\nauthor, nor was any explanation of them vouchsafed to him. No remedy was\npromised in this life, no hope held out of redress in a possible world to\ncome. On the contrary, Jahveh confirms the terrible facts alleged by His\nservant; He admits that pleasure and pain are not the meed of deeds done\nupon earth, and that the explanation we seek, the light we so wistfully\nlong for, will never come; for human existence is not a dark spot in an\nocean of dazzling splendour, but a will'-o'-the-wisp that merely\nintensifies the murkiness of everlasting Night.\n\nMoreover, Job was detached from the world already. He had overcome all\nhis passions and kept even his legitimate affections under control. He\nhad no word of regret on losing his cattle, his possessions, his\nchildren. During his most exquisite sufferings, he declared that he held\nonly to his good name. This, too, he now gives up and demanding nothing,\navers that he is satisfied. \"I resign and console myself. Though it be in\ndust and ashes.\" Complete detachment from existence, and not for the sake\nof some other and better existence (for there is none) is the practical\noutcome of Job's intuition. But in a God-created world made for the\ndelectation of mankind, to forego its pleasures would be to offend the\nCreator, if indeed stark madness could kindle His ire. But to curb one's\nthirst for life and to spurn its joys because one holds them to be the\ntap root of all evil, is an action at once intelligible and wise. And\nthis is what Job evidently does when he practises difficult virtues and\nundergoes terrible sufferings without the consciousness of past guilt or\nthe faintest hope of future recompense.\n\nAs Buddha taught his followers: \"When the disciple has lost all doubt as\nto the reality of suffering; when his doubts as to the origin of\nsuffering are dispelled; when he is no longer uncertain as to the\npossibility of annihilating suffering and when he hesitates no more about\nthe way that leads to the annihilation of suffering: then is he called a\nholy disciple, one who is in the stream that floweth onwards to\nperfection, one who is delivered from evil, who is guaranteed, who is\ndevoted to the highest truth.\"[21]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[14] One of the best accredited exponents of this theory, which is now\n    generally accepted by Catholic divines, is Father (now Cardinal)\n    Mazella.\n\n[15] And Job more than once applies it.\n\n[16] _Cf._ Editio Princeps, Oxford, 1681, p. 287.\n\n[17] Many pious Christians who scoff at such emotions, without\n    endeavouring to understand them, would do well to remember that\n    whatever truth there is in the dogma of the immorality of the soul,\n    is dependant upon this proposition, that time, space, and the law of\n    casuality have no real existence whatever, but are merely the\n    furniture of the human mind--the forms in which it apprehends. As\n    time exists only in our consciousness, and as beginning and end can\n    take place only in time, they can affect only our consciousness,\n    which ends in death, but not our souls, which are distinct from mind\n    and consciousness.\n\n[18] Job, who rejected all secondary causes whatever, could not in logic,\n    and did not in fact, believe in free will as it is commonly\n    understood in our days.\n\n[19] _Cf_. Matt. xii. 33-35.\n\n[20] Even the Bible is not wholly devoid of traces of the same symbol\n    employed to convey the same ideas; _cf._ Matt. xi. 14, John ix. 2,\n    for the New Testament, and Ps. xc. 3 for the Old. The apparent inner\n    absurdity of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls arises\n    mainly from our inability to grasp and realise the two propositions\n    which it presupposes--viz., that there is no such thing as time\n    outside of the human mind, and therefore no past or future; and,\n    secondly, that soul is but individualised will momentarily illumined\n    by the intellect which is a function of the brain. Metempsychosis was\n    originally no more than a symbol.\n\n[21] \"Samyuttaka-Nikayo,\" vol. iii. chap. iii. p. 24. _Cf._ Dr. K.\n    E. Neumann's \"Buddhistische Anthologie,\" Leiden, 1892, p. 204.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDATE OF THE COMPOSITION\n\nThe question which frequently exercised the ingenuity of former\ncommentators, whether the poem of Job is the work of one or of many\nauthors, has no longer any actuality. It is absolutely certain that the\nbook, as we find it in the Authorised Version, and even in the best\nHebrew manuscripts, is a mosaic put together by a number of writers\nwidely differing in their theological views and separated from each other\nby whole centuries; and it is equally undoubted that, restored to its\noriginal form, it is \"a poem round and perfect as a star\"--the\nmasterpiece of one of the most gifted artists of his own or any age. To\nthe inquiry where he lived and wrote, numerous tentative replies have\nbeen offered but no final answer. To many he is the last of the venerable\nrace of patriarchs, and his verse the sweet, sublime lisping of a\nchildlike nature, disporting itself in the glorious morning of the\nworld.[22]\n\nThis, however, is but a pretty fancy, which will not stand the ordeal of\nscientific criticism, nor even the test of a careful common-sense\nexamination. The broader problems that interest thinking minds of a late\nand reflective age, the profounder feelings and more ambitious\naspirations of manhood and maturity, are writ large in every verse of the\npoem. The lyre gives out true, full notes, which there is no mistaking.\nThe hero is evidently a travelled cosmopolitan, who has outgrown the\nnarrow prejudices of petty patriotism and national religious creeds to\nsuch an extent that he studiously eschews the use of the revealed name of\nthe God of his people, and seems to believe at most in a far-away and\nincomprehensible divinity who sometimes merges into Fate. In the God of\ntheologians he had no faith. His comforters, who from the uttermost ends\nof the earth meet together in a most unpatriarchal manner to discuss the\nhigher problems of philosophy, allude to the views in vogue in the\npatriarchal age as to traditions of bygone days before the influence of\nforeign invaders had tainted the purity of the national faith; and\npassages like xii. 17, xv. 19, seem to point to the captivity of the\nHebrew people as an accomplished fact. In a word, the strict monotheism\nof the hero, which at times borders upon half-disguised secularism, has\nnothing in common with the worship of the patriarchs except the absence\nof priests and the lack of ceremonies. The language of the poem,\nflavoured by a strong mixture of Arabic and Aramaic words and phrases,\nand the frequent use of imagery borrowed from Babylonian mythology, to\nsay nothing of a number of other signs and tokens of a comparatively late\nage, render the patriarchal hypothesis absolutely untenable.[23] This, at\nleast, is one of the few results of modern research about which there is\nperfect unanimity among all competent scholars.\n\nIf the date of the composition of Job cannot be fixed with any approach\nto accuracy, there are at least certain broad limits within which it is\nagreed on all hands that it should be placed. This period is comprised\nbetween the prophetic activity of Jeremiah and the second half of the\nBabylonian Exile. The considerations upon which this opinion is grounded\nare drawn mainly, if not exclusively, from authentic passages of Job\nwhich the author presumably borrowed from other books of the Old\nTestament. Thus a comparison of the verses in which the hero curses the\nday of his birth[24] with an identical malediction in Jeremiah (xx.\n14-15), and of the respective circumstances in which each was written,\nleads to the conviction that the borrower was not the prophet whose\nwritings must therefore have been familiar to the poet. This conclusion\nis confirmed by a somewhat far-fetched but none the less valid argument\ndrawn from the circumstance that Ezekiel,[25] who would probably have\nknown the poem had it existed in his day, obviously never heard of it;\nfor this prophet, broaching the question, apparently for the first time\namong his countrymen, as to the justice of human suffering, denies point\nblank that any man endures unmerited pain,[26] and affirms in emphatic\nterms that to each one shall be meted out reward or punishment according\nto his works.[27] And this he could hardly have done had he been aware of\nthe fact that the contradictory proposition was vouched for by no less an\nauthority than Jahveh Himself.\n\nAgain, it is highly probable, although one would hardly be justified in\nstating it as an established fact, that certain striking poetic images\nclothed in the same form of words in Job and in the Second Isaiah,[28]\nare the coinage of the rich imagination of the latter,[29] from whose\nwritings they must consequently have been taken by the author of Job. If\nthis assumption be correct, and it is considerably strengthened by\ncollateral evidence, we should have no choice but to assign to the\ncomposition of the poem a date later than that of the Second Isaiah who\nwrote between 546 and 535 B.C. The ingenious and learned German critic,\nDr. Cornill, holds it to be no less than two or three hundred years\nyounger still, and bases his opinion principally upon the last verse of\nthe last chapter of the Book of Job, where the expression (Job died) \"old\nand full of days,\" is, in his opinion, borrowed from the Priests' Code.\nIt is, however, needless to analyse this argument, seeing that the verse\nin question was wanting in the Septuagint[30] version, and must therefore\nbe held to be a later addition.\n\nAnother question, once a sure test of orthodoxy, the discussion of which\nhas become equally superfluous to-day, is to what extent the narrative is\nbased upon historical facts. The second council of Constantinople\nsolemnly condemned Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, one of the most\nenlightened Fathers of the Church, for having advanced the opinion that\nthe story of Job was a pious fiction and the doctrine it embodies\nirreconcileable with orthodoxy. It would be rash to say what conclusion a\ncouncil sitting at the end of the nineteenth century would be likely to\narrive at. But it would hardly find fault with the majority of\ncontemporary critics who hold that the prologue and epilogue, which are\nin prose and contain in outline the popular legend of Job, were anterior\nto the colloquies between the hero and his friends, bear in fact the same\nrelation to the poem that the mediaeval legend of Johan Faustus does to\nthe masterpiece of Goethe. And it was to the popular legend, not to the\npoem, that Ezekiel alluded in the passage in which he instances Job as\nthe type of the just man. But one must needs be endowed with a strong and\nchild-like faith to accept, in the light of ancient history and modern\nscience, as sober facts the familiar conversation between Jahveh and the\nAdversary in the council-chamber of heaven, the sudden intervention of\nthe latter in the life of Job, the ease with which he breaks through the\nchain of causality and bends even the human will to his purpose, the\nindecent haste with which he overwhelms the just man with a torrent of\ncalamities in the course of one short day, the apparition of Jahveh in a\nstorm-cloud, and many other equally improbable details. Improbability,\nhowever, is the main feature of all miracles; and faith need not be\ndismayed even by the seemingly impossible. In any case where it is\nhopeless to convince, it is needless to discuss, and if there still be\nreaders to whose appreciation of the poem belief in its historical truth\nis absolutely indispensable, it would be cruel to seek to spoil or even\nlessen their enjoyment of one of the most sublime creations known to any\nliterature of the world.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[22] One of the main grounds for this opinion is the absolute ignorance\n    of the Mosaic law manifested by the author of Job. The line of\n    reasoning is that he must have been either a Jew--and in that case\n    have lived before or simultaneously with Moses--or else an Arab, like\n    his hero, and have written the work in Arabic, Moses himself probably\n    doing it into Hebrew. To a Hebrew scholar this sounds as plausible as\n    would the thesis, to one well versed in Greek, that the Iliad is but\n    a translation from the Sanscrit. The Talmud makes Job now a\n    contemporary of David and Solomon, now wholly denies his existence.\n    Jerome, and some Roman Catholic theologians of to-day, identify the\n    author of the poem with Moses himself, a view in favour of which not\n    a shred of argument can be adduced. _Cf._ Loisy, \"Le Livre de Job,\"\n    Paris, 1892, p. 37; Reuss, \"Hiob.,\" Braunschweig, 1888, pp. 8 ff.\n\n[23] The subject of the date and place of composition has been treated by\n    Cornill, \"Einleitung in das Alte Testament,\" 235 fol., by Prof.\n    Duhm, \"The Book of Job\" (_cf._ \"The New World,\" June, 1894), and\n    others. But the most lucid, masterly, and dispassionate discussion of\n    the subject is to be found in Prof. Cheyne's \"Job and Solomon,\"\n    chaps. viii.-xii.\n\n[24] Job A.V. iii. 3-10.\n\n[25] 592-572 B.C.\n\n[26] Ezek. xviii. 2, 3.\n\n[27] _Ibid._ 4-9.\n\n[28] \"The Second Isaiah\" is the name now usually given to the unknown\n    author of one of the sublimest books of the Old Testament, viz.,\n    chaps, xl.-lxvi. of the work commonly attributed to Isaiah. It was\n    composed most probably between 546 and 535 B.C.\n\n[29] They may be found by referring to the parallel passages given in the\n    margin of the Authorised Version of Job; for instance, chap. xiv.\n    One example may suffice: In the Second Isaiah, xl. 6-8, we read\n    \"The Voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is\n    grass, and all the goodliness thereof _is_ as the flower of the\n    field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of\n    the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people _is_ grass. The grass\n    withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for\n    ever.\" In Job we find the winged word embodied in the verse 2, chap.\n    xiv. A.V. (strophe cxxi.).\n\n      Man that is born of a woman,\n      Poor in days and rich in trouble;\n      He cometh forth as a flower and fadeth,\n      He fleeth like a shadow and abideth not.\n\n[30] For the value of the testimony of the Septuagint, _cf_.\n    following chapter.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE TEXT AND ITS RECONSTRUCTION\n\nOur Authorised Version of Job is based upon the text handed down to us in\nexisting Hebrew manuscripts and upon Jerome's Latin translation. None of\nthe manuscripts, the most important of which are those of the\nVatican,[31] of Alexandria[32] and of Sinai,[33] go further back than the\nfourth century A.D. And some of the modifications, made by Jerome in the\nLatin translation, particularly in chap. xxi. 25-27, into which he\nintroduces the Christian idea of the Resurrection, were not based upon\nthe various readings of the Codices, but inspired by a pious desire to\nrender the work more edifying. As our Hebrew manuscripts are all derived\nfrom a single copy which was probably contemporaneous with the reign of\nthe Emperor Hadrian,[34] the words and the corrections of which they\nreproduce with Chinese scrupulosity, the utmost we can expect from them\nis to supply us with the text as it existed at that relatively late age.\n\nThe comparative indifference that reigned before that time as to the\npurity of the text of the most important books of the Canon, and the\nutter carelessness with which down to the first century of the Christian\nera the manuscripts of the Hagiographa[35] were treated, render it highly\nprobable that long before the reign of Hadrian the poem of Job had\nundergone many and serious modifications. The ease with which words\nwritten with consonants only, many of which resembled each other, were\nliable to be interchanged, strengthens this probability; while a detailed\nstudy of the various manuscripts and translations transforms it into\ncertainty. The parallel passages alone of almost any of the books of the\nOld Testament yield a rich harvest of divergences.\n\nBut involuntary errors of the copyists are insufficient to explain all\nthe bewildering changes which disfigure many of the books of the Sacred\nScriptures. The gradual evolution of the Hebrew religion from virtual\npolytheism to the strictest monotheism seemed peremptorily to call for a\ncorresponding change in the writings in which the revelation underlying\nit was enshrined. A later stadium of the evolution--which, of course, was\nnever felt to be such--might naturally cause the free and easy views and\nlax practices which once were orthodox and universal to assume the odious\nform of heresy and impiety, and a laudable respect for the author of\nrevelation was held to impose the sacred duty of bringing the documentary\nrecords of ancient practices into harmony with present theories. This was\nespecially true of the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes, in which not only\nwas the general tone lacking in respect for all that the Jewish community\nheld sacred, but likewise long and eloquent passages directly called in\nquestion the truth of revelation and blasphemously criticised the\nattributes of the Most High.\n\nGauged by the narrow standards of the Jewish community,[36] some of Job's\nmost sublime outbursts of poetic passion must have seemed as impious to\nhis contemporaries as to the theologians of our own country the\n\"blasphemies\" hurled by Byron's Lucifer against the \"Everlasting Tyrant.\"\nThere can be no doubt that it is to the feeling of holy horror which his\nplain speaking aroused in the minds of the strait-laced Jews of 2400\nyears ago that we have to ascribe the principal and most disfiguring\nchanges which the poem underwent at the hands of well-meaning censors. It\nis quite possible even now to point out, by the help of a few disjointed\nfragments still preserved, the position, and to divine the sense, of\ncertain spiritful and defiant passages which, in the interest of\n\"religion and morals,\" were remorselessly suppressed, to indicate others\nwhich were split up and transposed, and to distinguish many prolix\ndiscourses, feeble or powerful word-pictures and trite commonplaces which\nwere deliberately inserted later on, for the sole purpose of toning down\nthe most audacious piece of rationalistic philosophy which has ever yet\nbeen clothed in the music of sublime verse.\n\nThe disastrous results of these corrections which were made at various\ntimes and by different persons is writ large in the present text of Job\nas we find it in the Hebrew manuscripts and our Authorised Version, which\noffer us in many places a jumble of disjointed fragments, incoherent,\nirrelevant or self-contradictory.\n\nIn addition to common sense aided by cautious text criticism which\nenables us to recognise interpolations, to correct copyists' errors and\noccasionally even to determine the place and the tendency of expunged\npassages, the means at our disposal for the restoration of the poem are\nprincipally two: The laws of Hebrew poetry (parallelism and metre) on the\none hand, and a comparison of the Hebrew text with the ancient Greek\ntranslation of the Septuagint,[37] on the other. A judicious use of these\nhelps which are recognised as such even by the most conservative\nChristians, who condemn without hearing the tried methods and least\ndoubtful conclusions of biblical criticism, enables one to accomplish all\nthat is now possible towards restoring the poem of Job to its original\nform.\n\nThe nature and the laws of Hebrew metre, the discovery of which is\nindissolubly associated with the name of Prof. Bickell,[38] are identical\nwith those of Syriac poetry. The unit is the line, the syllables of which\nare numbered and accentuated, the line most frequent containing seven\nsyllables with iambic rhythm. Accentuated syllables alternate regularly\nwith unaccentuated, whereby the penultimate has the accent; and the\npoetic accent always coincides with the grammatical, as in Syriac poetry\nand in the Greek verse of early Christian times, the structure of which\nwas copied from the Syriac. Compare for instance the following:\n\n[Greek:\n  Hae parthenos saemeron\n  Ton epouranion tiktei,\n  Kai hae gae to spaelaion\n  To aprosito parechei.]\n\nwith a strophe from Job:\n\n  Sham\u00e1ti kh\u00e9ll\u00e4 r\u00e1bbot:\n  Men\u00e1chme 'amal ko\u00f3l' khem,\n  Hake\u00e7 led\u00edber\u00e9 rooch?\n  Ma-y\u00e1mri\u00e7'kh\u00e1, ki t\u00e1hn\u00e4?\n\nThe second characteristic of Hebrew poetry, which is occasionally to be\nfound even in prose, is that repetition of the same thought in a slightly\nmodified form which is commonly known as parallelism. Thus, in the poem\nof Job the second line of the strophe expresses an idea very closely\nresembling that embodied in the first; and the third and fourth run\nparallel in like manner. For instance, Eliphaz, expounding the\ntraditional teaching that the wicked man is punished in this life, says:\n\n  \"His offshoot shall wither before his time,\n  And his branch shall not be green;\n  He shall shake off his unripe grape, like the vine,\n  And shall shed his flower, like the olive.\"\n\nThe second important aid to emendation is a careful comparison of the\nHebrew text with the Greek translation known as the Septuagint (LXX.),\nwhich, undertaken and completed in Alexandria between the beginning of\nthe third and the close of the second century B.C., offers the first\nrecorded instance of an entire national literature being rendered into a\nforeign tongue. The extrinsic value of this work is obvious from the fact\nthat it enables us to construct a text which is centuries older than that\nof which all our Hebrew manuscripts are servile copies, and is over a\nthousand years more ancient than the very oldest Hebrew codices now\nextant.[39] Not indeed that the poem of Job had undergone no changes\nbetween the time of its composition and the second century B.C. On the\ncontrary, some of the most important interpolations had already been\ninserted[40] and various excisions and transpositions made before the\ntranslator first took the work in hand. But at least the ground is\ncleared considerably, seeing that no less than four hundred verses which\nwe now read in all our present Bibles, Hebrew and vernacular, were tacked\non to the poem at a date subsequent to the Greek translation and\ntherefore found no place in that version. These additions may, on the\nfaith of the Septuagint, be struck out with all the less hesitation that\nboth metre and parallelism confirm with their weighty testimony the\ntrustworthy evidence of the orthodox translation that the strophes in\nquestion are insertions of a later date.\n\nBut the value of the Septuagint depends upon its greater or less immunity\nfrom those disfiguring changes which render the Hebrew text\nincomprehensible and from which few ancient works are wholly free. And\nunfortunately no such immunity can be claimed for it. What happened to\nthe original text likewise befell the Greek translation. Desirous of\nputting an end to the disputes between Jews and Christians as to the\nrespective merits of the two, a proselyte from Ephesus, Theodotion by\nname, undertook to do the Bible into Greek anew somewhere between 180-192\nA.D. The basis of his work was the Septuagint, of which he changed\nnothing that in his opinion could stand; but at the same time he\nconsulted the Hebrew manuscripts and vainly endeavoured to effect a\ncompromise between the two. Among other innovations, he inserted in his\ntranslation the four hundred interpolated verses which, having been added\nto the Hebrew text after it had been first rendered into Greek, could not\npossibly have formed part of the Septuagint version. Later on (232-254\nA.D.) Origen, anxious to throw light upon the cause of the divergences\nbetween existing translations and the original text, and to provide the\nmeans of judging of the respective merits of these, undertook one of\nthose wearisome works of industry, which later on constituted a special\nfeature of the activity of the Benedictine monks. The result of his\nresearches was embodied in the Hexapla--a book containing, in six\nparallel columns, the original text in Hebrew and in Greek letters, the\nGreek translation by Aquila, another by Symmachus, the text of the\nSeptuagint edited by himself, and Theodotion's version. Now Origen,\nacting upon the gratuitous assumption that the passages wanting in the\nSeptuagint had formed part of the original Book of Job and had been\nomitted by the translators solely because they failed to understand their\nmeaning, took them from Theodotion and incorporated them in his edition\nof the Septuagint as it appeared in the Hexapla, merely distinguishing\nthem by means of asterisks. Unfortunately, in the course of time these\ndistinctive marks disappeared partially or wholly, thus depriving the old\nGreek translation of its inestimable value as an aid to text criticism;\nand there remained but five manuscripts in which they were to some extent\npreserved.[41]\n\nUntil recently it was generally taken for granted by Biblical scholars\nthat there were no codices extant in the world but these five, which\ncontained data of a nature to enable us to reconstruct the text of the\nSeptuagint. And the assistance given by these manuscripts was dubious at\nbest, for they included the misleading additions incorporated in the text\nby Origen, merely marking them with asterisks, which were not only\ninsufficient in number, but oftentimes wrongly distributed. No one\nventured to hope that there was still extant a version from which the\nspurious verses were rigorously excluded. And the discovery of such a\ntext by my friend, Prof. Bickell, marks a new epoch in the history of\nBiblical criticism.\n\nOne day that distinguished scholar, while sauntering about Monte Pincio\nwith the late Coptic Bishop, Agapios Bsciai, was informed by this\ndignitary that he had found and transcribed a wretched codex of the\nSaidic[42] Version of Job in the Library of the Propaganda. Hearing that\nnumerous passages were wanting in the newly discovered codex, Prof.\nBickell at once conjectured that this \"defective\" version might possibly\nprove to be a translation of the original Septuagint text without the\nlater additions; and having studied it at the bishop's house saw his\nsurmise changed to certainty; the text was indeed that of the original\nSeptuagint without the disfiguring additions inserted by Origen. The late\nProf. Lagarde of G\u00f6ttingen then applied for, and received, permission to\nedit this precious find; but owing to the desire conceived later on by\nPope Leo XIII. that an undertaking of such importance should be carried\nout by an ecclesiastic of the Roman Catholic Church, Lagarde's hopes were\ndashed at the eleventh hour, and Monsignor Ciasca, to whom the task was\nconfided, accomplished all that can reasonably be expected from pious\nzeal and patient industry.\n\nThe Saidic version, therefore, as embodying a purer and more ancient text\nof the Book of Job than any we had heretofore possessed, is one of the\nmost serviceable of the instruments employed in restoring the poem to its\nprimitive form.[43] It frequently enables us to eliminate passages which\nformerly rendered the author's meaning absolutely incomprehensible, and\nat other times replaces obscure with intelligible readings which, while\ndiffering from those of the Massoretic manuscripts, are obviously the\nmore ancient.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[31] Fourth century A.D.\n\n[32] Fifth century A.D.\n\n[33] Fourth century A.D.\n\n[34] A.D. 117-138.\n\n[35] The Hagiographa--or, as the Hebrews term them, _Ketubim_--include\n    Job, Proverbs, the Psalms, the Canticle of Canticles, Ruth, the\n    Lamentations, Koheleth, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and\n    Chronicles.\n\n[36] As distinguished from the pre-exilian people. Before the Captivity\n    the Israelites lived the political life of all independent nations.\n    After the Exile they were but a religious community--a Church. It was\n    for this Church that the \"Mosaic\" legislation of the Priests' Code\n    was written and the ancient historical records retouched.\n\n[37] Completed probably in the second century B.C.\n\n[38] Ewald and others had conjectured long before that the colloquies of\n    Job were in verse, but their attempts to reduce them to strophes\n    were of a nature to weaken rather than confirm the theory. That\n    the strophes consisted of four lines is a discovery of Prof.\n    Bickell's. At first listened to with scepticism, it is now accepted\n    by some of the leading critics of Germany, and received with favour\n    by such English scholars as Prof. Cheyne.\n\n[39] St. Paul in his quotations from the Old Testament usually follows\n    the Septuagint. But the poem of Job he quotes from a lost version,\n    some traces of which are to be found in the works of Clement of\n    Alexandria.\n\n[40] \"Inserted\" is the strongest term that can be applied to editors who\n    lived in a time when to foist one's own elucubrations upon a\n    deceased genius was a work of piety deserving praise. Some of the\n    acts which were virtues in Job's days have assumed a very different\n    aspect in ours; but good intentions are always at a premium, and the\n    Jewish interpolators were animated by the best.\n\n[41] Two Greek, two Latin, and one Syriac.\n\n[42] Also called the Thebaic Version.\n\n[43] As a translation it is a poor performance.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nINTERPOLATIONS\n\nHaving thus briefly sketched the instruments by means of which the\nreconstruction of the poem of Job was undertaken, it may not be amiss to\nillustrate the manner in which they are employed in the light of a few\nexamples. To begin with the structure of the metre. In the Authorised\nVersion we find (chap. xii. 12) the words: \"With the ancient is wisdom,\nand in length of days understanding.\" This in Hebrew is\n\n  Bish\u00edshim ch\u00f3khma\n  Ve\u00f3rekh y\u00e1mim t'b\u00fana.\n\nThe first line therefore has five instead of seven syllables and is\nconsequently defective; something must have fallen out. This conclusion,\nbased upon the laws of the metre, is fully borne out by a study of the\ncontext; for it is enough to read Job's reply from the beginning to see\nthat he could not have set himself to prove, as he is here made to do,\nthat God is as wise as man; his contention really being that man's\nknowledge is ignorance compared with the wisdom of the Being who governs\nthe universe. For he is arguing against the traditionalists who assert\nthat justice is the essential characteristic of the conduct of the world,\na thesis refuted by almost everything we see and hear around us. Bildad\nbesought his sorely tried friend to learn of bygone generations and to\nview things through their eyes. \"Shall they not teach thee?\" he asks\n(viii. 10), to which Job's reply is an emphatic negative: \"There is\n_no_ wisdom with the ancient, nor understanding in length of days.\"\nTo agree with his \"friend\" would be to throw up his case, and this the\nAuthorised Version makes him do. God alone is endowed with wisdom; but is\nHe likewise good? To this question His government of the universe alone\ncan furnish an answer. There must evidently then have been a negative\nparticle in the text which a copyist, shocked at the seemingly rash\nassertion, expunged. If now we add the words \"for not\" the metre is in\norder and the sense perfect:\n\n  Ki \u00e9n bish\u00edshim ch\u00f3khma\n  Ve\u00f3rekh y\u00e1mim t'b\u00fana.\n\nTake another instance. The first part of v. 14, chap. xiv. is rendered in\nour version as follows: \"If a man die shall he live again?\" and the\ntranslation would be faithful enough if the Hebrew word were\n_hayichy\u00e4_, as our MSS. testify, but as an interrogation would\ndestroy the parallelism of the strophe, it is evident that the syllable\n_ha_, which in Hebrew consists of one and not two letters, is an\ninterpolation, and the word should be _yichy\u00e4_ and the strophe\n(composed of v. 13 and 14a).\n\n  \"Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave!\n  That thou wouldst secrete me till thy wrath be passed!\n  That thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me!\n  If so be man could die and yet live on.\"\n\nAgain starting from the recognised principle that the entire poem is\ncomposed on a regular plan and consists exclusively of four-line\nstrophes, it is obvious that all the tristichs in chapters xxiv. and xxx.\nmust be struck out. The circumstances that their contents are as\nirrelevant to the context as would be a number of stanzas of \"The Ancient\nMariner\" if introduced into \"Paradise Lost,\" that in form they are wholly\ndifferent from the strophes of the poem of Job, and that there is\nobviously a sudden break in the text of the latter just when heterodoxy\nmerges into blasphemy, have forced critics to the conclusion--about which\nthere is hardly any difference of opinion--that these tristichs are\nextracts from a very different work, which were inserted to fill up the\nvoid created by orthodox theologians of a later date.[44]\n\nBesides the four hundred verses which must be excluded on the ground that\nthey are wanting in the Septuagint Version, and were therefore added to\nthe text at a comparatively recent period,[45] the long-winded discourse\nof Elihu[46] must be struck out, most of which was composed before the\nbook was first translated into Greek. Common sense, unaided by any\ncritical apparatus, suffices to mark this tedious monologue as an\ninterpolation. The poet knew nothing of him who is supposed to have\nuttered it. In the prologue in prose where all the actors in this\npsychological drama are enumerated and described, Elihu is not once\nalluded to; and in the epilogue, where all the debaters are named and\ncensured, he alone is absolutely ignored. Nay, it is evident that when\nJahveh's discourse was written, the poet had no suspicion of the\nexistence of this fourth friend; for at the conclusion of the \"fourth\nfriend's\" pretentious speech, composed of scraps borrowed from those of\nthe other actors in the drama, Jahveh addressed all present in a form of\nwords which implies that not Elihu but Job was the last speaker, and had\nonly that instant terminated his reply. This fact alone should be\nconclusive. But it is confirmed by other weighty considerations which\nleave no place for doubt: Thus, Elihu's style is _toto coelo_\ndifferent from that of the other parts of the poem: artificial, vague,\nrambling, prosaic, and strongly coloured by Aramaic idioms, while his\ndoctrinal peculiarities, particularly his mention of interceding angels,\nwhile they coincide with those of the New Testament, are absolutely\nunknown to Job and his friends. Moreover, if Elihu had indeed formed one\nof the _dramatis personae_ of the original work, the _r\u00f4le_ he\nwould and should have assumed is not dubious; he must be the wise man\naccording to the author's own heart. This he is or nothing. And yet, if\nhe were really this, we should have the curious spectacle of the poet\ndeveloping at great length an idea which runs directly counter to the\nfundamental conception underlying the entire work. For Elihu declares\nJob's sufferings to be a just punishment for his sins; whereas the poet\nand Jahveh Himself proclaim him to be the type of the just man, and\ndescribe his misery as a short, unmerited and exceptional probation.\nEvidently then Elihu is the elaborate production of some second-rate\nwriter and first-class theologian awkwardly wedged into the poem perhaps\na century or more after it had been composed, and certainly before the\nwork was first translated into Greek.\n\nThe confusion introduced into the text by this insertion is bewildering\nin the extreme; and yet the result is but a typical specimen of the\ninextricable tangle which was produced by the systematic endeavours of\nlater and pious editors to reduce the poem to the proper level of\northodoxy. Another instance is to be found in Job's reply to the third\ndiscourse of Bildad: in two passages of this discourse the hero\ncompletely and deliberately gives away the case which he had been\ntheretofore so warmly defending, and accepts--to reject it later on as a\nmatter of course--the doctrine of retribution.[47] Now, on the one hand,\nif we remove these verses, Job's speech becomes perfectly coherent and\nlogical, and the description of wisdom falls naturally into its right\nplace; but, on the other hand, we have no reason whatever to call their\nauthenticity in question and to strike them out. The solution of this\ndifficulty is that Zophar who, in our versions, speaks but twice, really\nspoke three times, like each of his three colleagues, and that the verses\nin question were uttered by him, and not by Job. His discourse was\nintentionally split up into two portions, and incorporated in a speech\ndelivered by Job, in order to represent the hero as an advocate of the\ndogma of retribution.\n\nAnother example of obviously intentional transposition occurs in chap.\nxl. where two verses are introduced as one of Job's replies to God, so as\nto allow of the latter delivering a second speech and utilising therein a\nfine description of the hippopotamus and the crocodile. Lastly, it needs\nlittle critical acumen to perceive that the scraps of dialogue attributed\nto Jahveh in the Hebrew text and Authorised Version are, in so far as\nthey can claim to be regarded as authentic, but fragments of a single\ndiscourse. It would be preposterous to hold a poet or even an average\npoetaster responsible for the muddle made by the negligence of copyists\nand the zeal of interpolators who sought thus awkwardly to improve the\nauthor's theology at the cost of his poetry. But it is enough to consider\nthe elements of this particular question for a moment to perceive that\nthere can be but one solution. Jahveh makes a long and crushing reply to\nJob, gradually merges into fine descriptive but irrelevant poetry, and\nthen suddenly calls for a rejoinder. The hero, humbled to the dust,\nexclaims[48] that he is vile and conscious of his impotence, and will lay\nhis hand upon his mouth and open his lips no more. Here the matter should\nend, for Job has confessed himself vanquished. But no, Jahveh, instead of\nbeing touched by this meek avowal and self-humiliation, must needs\naddress the human worm as if he had turned against his Creator, and asks\nsuch misplaced questions as \"Hast thou an arm like God?\" As a matter of\nfact, Jahveh, whose apparition is but a poetic symbol of the sudden flash\nof light which illumined the mind of the despairing hero, spoke but once.\nFor Job, one glimpse through the veil was enough, one rapid glance at the\nrealm where all is dark, and deep lies\n\n      \"under deep unknown,\n  And height above unknown height.\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[44] Chap. xxiv. 5-8, 10-24 and chap. xxx. 3-7 take the place of Job's\n    blasphemous complaint about the unjust government of the world.\n\n[45] For the benefit of readers who shrink from making any alteration in\n    the Bible, and who are mostly unaware that innumerable and\n    wide-reaching changes were effected in it by the negligence or\n    design of scribes, theologians, and others, it may be well to point\n    out that none of the changes rendered necessary by the reconstruction\n    of the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes in any way affects whatever\n    degree of inspiration they feel disposed to attribute to the Bible as\n    a whole, or to the interpolations in particular. The point of view of\n    the critic, if by no means identical with that of the pious\n    worshipper, need not to clash with it. An interpolation may be--and\n    as we here see very often is--much more orthodox than an original\n    text, and the more recent its origin the greater the chances that it\n    will be so.\n\n[46] xxxii.-xxxvii. In the Septuagint Version Elihu's discourse occupies\n    but little more than half the number of verses to be found in the\n    Hebrew manuscript and in the Authorised Version.\n\n[47] xxvii. 8-10, 14-23.\n\n[48] xl. 4-5.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJOB'S THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTIONS\n\nAlthough the main object of the poet is to present in a clear,\ncomprehensive and palpable form the sphinx riddle of human existence, his\nwork abounds nevertheless in a variety of interesting data, which throw\nconsiderable light upon the philosophical and theological theories in\nvogue among the thoughtful spirits of the Jewish community. Their\n\"natural philosophy\" offers little that is likely to interest and nothing\nof a nature to instruct the well-informed reader of to-day. But the\nmythological concreteness and palpitating vitality of all its elements\nprofoundly impress us, less because of the curious standard they supply\nby which to gauge the intellectual level of that age than as the symbols\nchosen by the poet to express the identity and nothingness of all things\nliving and inanimate. Before God, all creatures think, reason, speak,\nlike man, because all are equal to him and he is but a breath. The stars,\nwhich are relatives of the Satan and of God's own children, wax\nenthusiastic and shout for joy; the lightning hearkens to the voice of\nits Creator and, flashing athwart the heavens, announces its presence.\nThe sun is in continual danger of being devoured by a rapacious monster\nupon whom a watch has to be set; and all things live and move in the same\nway and by exactly the same force that dwells and acts in man with whom\nthey are one in essence; and he himself is but a flower that sprouts,\nfades and dies.[49] Death is the end of man and beast and flower and\ngrass alike; and after death comes dismal darkness. There is no\ndifference among them. Man is no more and no less than all the rest.\n_Sheol_, or the realm of the dead, is a murky, silent and dreary\nabode, the shadowy inmates of which are as if they were not, unconscious\nas infants \"which never saw the light.\"\n\nThis state, which is not perhaps absolutely equivalent to complete\nannihilation, is yet identical with that of \"an hidden untimely birth.\"\nTranslated into the language of philosophy this somewhat vague notion\nmight be expressed as follows: All things, past, present and to come,\nwhich flit as unreal shadows on the wall of time and space, are\nmanifestations of the one sole force which is everlasting and\nomnipresent. They are not parts of a whole which is one and divisible:\nall that we see and know of them in life is nothing; and after death they\nare what they were before--identical with the one.\n\n  \"One life through all the immense creation runs,\n  One spirit is the moon's, the sea's, the sun's;\n  All forms in the air that fly, on the earth that creep,\n  And the unknown nameless creatures of the deep--\n  Each breathing thing obeys one mind's control,\n  And in all substance is a single soul.\"\n\nFor Job's theory of the universe is dynamic and recognises but one force,\nwhich is so vague and indefinite that he hesitates to bestow upon it the\nname of the concrete God of the Jews.[50] There is no multiplicity, no\nduality, no other substance, no other cause. The One is and does alone.\nAll things are shadowy delusions; He alone is real. We are nothing except\nin Him. Evil as well as good is His work. The Satan who tortures Job is\none of the sons of God to whom special power is exceptionally delegated;\nbut, as a rule, God Himself punishes the just and showers His blessings\non the wicked. Everything that happens is the outcome of His will. There\nis no nature, no causation, no necessary law in the physical world; every\nevent is the embodiment of the one will which is absolutely free, and\ntherefore, neither to be foreseen nor explained.\n\nLike Koheleth, Job seems to hold that intelligence is something secondary\nnot primordial. Man, who is richly endowed with it on earth, knows really\nnothing, never can know anything, about the origin and reason of things.\nThey are absolutely unknowable. He finds abyss yawning under abyss,\nheight towering above height, and dark mysteries encompass him\neverlastingly.\n\n  \"But wisdom--whence shall it come?\n  And where is the place of understanding?\n  It is hid from the eyes of all living\" (cxxxiv.).\n\nAnd if there be at most but will-o'-the-wisps on this side of the shadow\nof Night, there is nought but absolute darkness beyond.\n\nThese considerations would seem to offer a very satisfactory explanation\nof the monotheism of the poet which is far in advance of that of his\ncontemporaries, to whatever age we may assign him. It is a purely\nphilosophical conception which never was and never can be enshrined in a\ntheological dogma, and to seek for its genesis in the evolution of the\nJewish religion is far less reasonable than to derive it from the\nphilosophy of the Greeks or the Hindoos.\n\nJob's theory of ethics differs widely from that of his friends and\ncontemporaries, and indeed from that of the bulk of mankind of all times.\nThe Jews believed in fleeting pleasures and pains in this life as the\nsole recompense for virtue and sin; their modern heirs and successors\nhope for eternal bliss or fear everlasting suffering in the next. The\nmotives deducible from both creeds are identical, and philosophy connotes\nthem as egotism. Whether the meed I long for or the pain I would shun be\ntransitory or everlasting, the moment my individual well-being becomes\nthe motive of my conduct it is not easy to perceive where morality comes\nin. And so universally is egotism to be found at the root of what appear\nto us to be the most generous actions, that the Adversary was right\nenough in refusing, without conclusive proof, to enrol Job's name in the\nshort list of exceptions. But Job's ethics were many degrees above proof.\nIn no book of the ancient Testament and in no religion or philosophy of\nthe old world, if we except Buddhism, do we find anything to compare with\nthe sublime morality inculcated in the poem that bears his name. It\nutterly ignores the convenient and profitable virtue known as \"duty to\none's self\" and bases all the other virtues on pity for our fellows, who\nare not merely our brethren but our very selves. The truly moral man\nshould be able to say with Job:\n\n      \"I delivered the poor that cried aloud,\n  And the orphan and him that had none to help him;\n  And I gladdened the heart of the widow (ccxlvii.).\n\n  I became eyes to the blind,\n  And I was feet unto the lame (ccxlviii.).\n\n  If I saw one perish for lack of clothing,\n  Or any of the poor devoid of covering;\n  Then surely did his loins bless me,\n  And he was warmed with the fleece of my sheep (cclxix.).\n\n  I have never made gold my hope (cclxxi.).\n\n  Never did I rejoice at the ruin of my hater,\n  Nor exult when misery found him out (cclxxiii.).\n\n  Did not he that made me in the womb, make him? (cclxvii.)\n\n  Did I not weep for him that was in trouble?\" (cclix.).\n\nAnd having accomplished all this without fear of pain,\n\n  \"Gaze onward without claim to hope,\n  Nor, gazing backward, court regret.\"\n\nThis is the only system of morality deserving that much-abused name; it\nwas preached and to a great extent practised in India by the Jainists and\nthe Buddhists, and for the first time in the Old Testament by the author\nof our poem.\n\nAll the ills and sorrows of life, merited and unmerited alike, Job is\nprepared for. They are the commonplaces of human existence and as\ninseparable from it as shadow from light. But what he cannot endure is\nthe thought that his good name, the sole comfort left him in his misery,\nshall be sacrificed to a theological theory which runs counter to every\nfact of public history and private experience. This is an injustice which\nseems to strike at the root of all morality, and he passionately attacks\nall who uphold it, even though God Himself be of the number. For he has\nunshaken faith in eternal justice as something independent even of the\ndeity. Its manifestations may be imperceptible and incomprehensible to\nus, but it governs the universe all the same, and faith in this fact was\nhis lodestar when sun and moon had gone out and the aimless tornado raged\naround and ghastly horrors issued from the womb of Night. The wicked may\nprosper and the just man die on a dunghill, scorned by all and seemingly\nforsaken by God Himself, but it is none the less true that sin and\nsuffering, virtue and reward are fruits of the same tree, one and\nindivisible. They are the manna the taste of which adapts itself to the\neater. Job expresses the conviction, which St. Bernard so aptly\nformulated when he said: \"Nought can harm me but myself;\" and it is this\nconviction that nerves and sustains him in his defiant challenge to the\nMost High and prompts his appeal to eternal justice against even God\nHimself:\n\n  \"Will he plead against me with his almighty power?\n  If not, then not even he would prevail against me.\n  For a righteous one would dispute with him.\" (ccxvi.)\n\nBut after the theophany, when the truth has dawned upon the mind of the\nheroic sufferer, he sees that eternal justice needs not even this\ncertificate of its existence, that it can dispense with the most eloquent\nhuman advocate, and he waives what he had theretofore held to be his\nindefeasible right and puts the crown on his system of ethics by enduring\nhis lot in silence.\n\nPeace grounded on knowledge, therefore, is the end of Job's doubts and\nmisgivings. But it is not the knowledge of a reward to come, a\npresentiment of the joys of heaven, of an everlasting feeding-trough\nwhere our hunger and thirst for existence shall be satiated for ever and\never. It is that sobering knowledge which is increase of sorrow.\nInjustice in the world there is none; if all beings living are liable to\npain, and everything animate and inanimate is subject to decay and death,\nthe reason is that suffering and dissolution are the conditions of\nexistence, which is therefore an evil. To desire the one is to wish for\nor accept the other. This is the conviction which brings peace to the\nsoul of the hero and enables him to exclaim:\n\n  \"I resign and console myself,\n  Though in dust and ashes.\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n\n[49] Strophe cxxi.\n\n[50] Lagarde seems to have hit the mark when he affirms that the poet's\n    faith in God reduces itself to a vague belief in the divine.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nANALYSIS OF THE POEM\n\nThe popular legend of Job, which was current among the Hebrews and\nprobably among their Semitic neighbours for centuries before the poem was\ncomposed, is embodied in the prologue and epilogue,[51] which are written\nin prose. The data it contains are utilised by the author for the purpose\nof clearly stating, not of elucidating, the main problem, and it would be\na grave mistake on the part of the reader to attempt to supplement the\nreasoning of Job's friends by arguments drawn from the details narrated\nin the legend. Thus, the conversation between Jahveh and the Satan is\nobviously intended to establish the all-important fact that Job, although\nnot a member of the chosen people, a believer in their priestly dogmas,\nnor an observer of their religious rites and ceremonies, was none the\nless a truly just man, the perfect type of the righteous of all times and\ncountries. On the other hand, the circumstances that his sufferings were\nno more than a probation, and that they were followed by fabulous wealth\nand intensified happiness, are dismissed by the poet as wholly irrelevant\nto the question at issue. Nor, considering their purely exceptional\ncharacter, would they have tended in any degree to solve it. If Job's\nmisery was an ordeal, all unmerited suffering cannot be pressed into the\nsame convenient category. His individual privations and pains may have\nbeen compensated for by subsequent plenty and prosperity; but there are\nother just men who rot on the dunghill and die in despair. The author,\ntherefore, wisely refrained from drawing on the legend more extensively\nthan was absolutely needful for the materials of his poem, and from thus\nreducing a universal problem to the dimensions of an individual case.\n\nThe folk-story of the just man, Job, is conceived in the true spirit of\nEastern legendary lore. The colours are laid on with an ungrudging hand.\nHe was not merely well-to-do and contented, he was the happiest mortal\nwho had ever walked the earth in his halcyon days, and the most\nhopelessly wretched during his probation.\n\nBut although wont, as the Preacher recommends, to fill up his cup with\nthe wine of life, \"pressing all that it yields of mere vintage,\" he was\nanything but an egotist. The broad stream of his sympathy flowed out\ntowards all his fellows, nay, to all things animate and inanimate. The\nsheep, the lion, the eagle, and the oxen, were his comrades, the fire and\nthe wind his kinsmen. Even for his worst enemies he had no curse, nor did\nhe ever rejoice in their merited misfortunes. So blameless and upright\nwas his living and working, so completely had he eschewed even\nheart-sins, that he might have carried windows in his breast that all\nmight see what was being done within.\n\nNow, in accordance with the retribution-theory then in fashion--small\ntemporary profits and quick returns--he had amply merited his good\nfortune, and might have reasonably expected to enjoy it to the close of a\nlong life, which for him was the end of everything. In fact, he had no\nlonger any serious grounds for apprehending the gathering of clouds of\nmisfortune to darken the sunshine of his existence, seeing that he had\nalready attained to a ripe age, was possessed of vast herds of cattle and\nthousands of camels, was blest with a numerous family, and passed for\n\"the greatest of all the children of the East.\" But the most specious\ntheological theories are as powerless to guarantee the just man from the\nblows of adversity as to hinder the worm from finding the blushing rose's\n\"bed of crimson joy\"; and whether pain and sorrow be labelled \"probation\"\nor \"just punishment,\" they will never cease to figure among the\ncommonplaces of human existence.\n\nAt one of the social gatherings of the courtiers of heaven, Jahveh takes\noccasion to laud the virtue of the just man, Job, whereupon the Satan,\nwho not only understands, but sees through the righteousness of the bulk\nof mankind, expresses his conviction that it has its roots in mere\nselfishness. Jahveh then empowers the Adversary to put it to the test by\ndepriving Job of his possessions and his family. On this, the hero's\nwealth and happiness vanished as suddenly as the smile on the face of an\ninfant, and in a twinkling, so to say, he was changed into a perfect type\nof human wretchedness.\n\nBy one of those extraordinary miracles which are characteristic of\nOriental fiction, in the course of a single day Job's four hundred yoke\nof oxen were seized and carried off by the Sabeans, his seven thousand\nscattered sheep were sought out and consumed by lightning, his three\nthousand camels were driven away by Chaldeans, and his sons and daughters\nkilled by the falling of a house. Being but human, Job's soul is harrowed\nup by grief; but, recognising the emptiness of all things, he endures his\nlot manfully and without murmur or complaint.\n\nWhen the sons of God met again in the council chamber of heaven, Jahveh\ntriumphantly inquired of the Adversary what he now thought of Job's\nvirtue and its taproot. But the Satan still clung tenaciously to his low\nview of the mainspring of the hero's conduct. \"Skin for skin, yea, all\nthat a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now,\nand touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to thy face.\nAnd the Lord said unto the Adversary: \"Behold he is in thine hand; only\nspare his life.\" Whereupon he was smitten with the most loathsome disease\nknown in the East, which together with the moral suffering resulting from\nutter abandonment, besieged him, \"even to the gates and inlets of his\nlife.\" But firm and manful, with strength nurtured by the witness of his\nown conscience, and the conviction that true virtue is independent of\nreward, he maintains the citadel unconquered, refusing to open the\nportals even to Jahveh Himself.\n\nNothing can subdue Job, not even the bitter fruits of the diabolical\nrefinement of the Adversary who, having permission to slay all the hero's\nkith and kin, spares his spouse, lest misery should harbour any\npossibilities unrealised.\n\nAt last three of Job's friends come from the uttermost ends of the earth\nto visit and console him. Travelling over enormous distances, and setting\nout from opposite points of the compass, they all contrive to reach the\nsufferer at the same moment; and at the sight of the deformed and\nloathsome figure of their friend are all three struck dumb with grief.\nWithout any previous consultation among themselves, they sit silent and\nsad for seven days and seven nights, gazing with fascinated horror on the\nmisshapen figure on the dunghill. This curious manifestation of\nfriendship unmans the hero whose fortitude had been proof against the\nmost cruel physical and moral suffering; utterly breaking down, he \"fills\nwith woes the passing wind,\" and bitterly curses his existence. Awe at\nfirst keeps him from censuring God's ways; truthfulness from condemning\nhimself. He cannot understand why he suffers, whether there be any truth\nor none in the traditional doctrine of unfailing retribution upon earth;\nfor he has certainly done everything to merit happiness and nought to\ndeserve punishment. Society, however, is there in the person of his\nfriends to dispel this delusion. They hold a brief for the cut-and-dried\ntheology of the day which tells them that in Job there was a reservoir of\nguilt and sin filling up from youth to age, which now, no longer able to\nhold its loathsome charge, burst and overwhelmed with misery their friend\nand his family. They play their parts very skilfully, at first softly\nstroking, as it were, the beloved friend, as if to soothe his pain, and\nthen vigorously rubbing the salt in the gaping wounds of the groaning\nvictim.\n\nThe campaign is opened mildly by Eliphaz, a firm believer in the spooks\nand spectres of borderland, who, in reply to Job's complaint, assures his\nfriend that no really innocent human being ever died in misery as he now\nseems to be dying, and gently reminds him that \"affliction shooteth not\nfrom the dust, neither doth trouble sprout up from the ground;\" they need\nthe fertile soil of sin, which Job must have provided, unknown to his\neasy-going friends who, taking him at his own estimation, heretofore\nconsidered him a just man. But even if he were what he would have them\nbelieve he is, he has no ground for just complaint: for \"happy is the man\nwhom God correcteth.\" To this the hero replies, accentuating his\ninnocence, and pouring forth his plaint in \"wild words,\" for God \"useth\nme as an enemy.\" He seeks not for mercy, he explains, but for justice,\nnay, he is magnanimous enough to be content with even less. He only asks\nof God,\n\n  \"That it would please him to destroy me,\n  That he would let go his hand and cut me off;\"[52]\n\nand this request having been refused, suicide, the ever \"open door\" of\nthe Stoics, invited him temptingly in, but he withstood the temptation,\nand comforted himself with the knowledge that all things in time have an\nend.\n\n      \"My soul would have chosen strangling,\n  And death by my own resolve.\n  But I spurned it; for I shall not live for ever.\"[53]\n\nThe arbitrary and incomprehensible will of the deity may, in ultimate\nanalysis, be the changeful basis of right and wrong, but, if so, divine\njustice differs from human not merely in degree but likewise in\ncharacter, and not apparently to its advantage. The tuneful Psalmist had\nsung in ecstatic wonder at the mercy of God: \"What is man, that thou art\nmindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast\nmade him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory\nand honour.\"[54] Job, having looked upwards in the same direction, not\nfor mercy but for simple justice, and looked in vain, parodies with\nbitter irony those same verses of the Psalm:\n\n  \"What is man that thou shouldst magnify him?\n  And that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him?\n  That thou shouldst visit him every morning,\n  And try him every moment?\"[55]\n\nBildad, the Traditionalist _par excellence_, then addresses a sharp\nreproof to the just man who refused to recognise as mercy in God the\nconduct which, were a man responsible for it, he must needs condemn as\nwickedness. He bids him inquire of bygone generations what they thought\nof the goodness of the Creator, and asks him to be guided by the wisdom\nof his fore-fathers, who lived and throve on the spiritual food of\nretribution which he now rejects with loathing. This attack provokes a\nnew outburst on the part of Job, who ironically paraphrases and develops\nthe ideas of his comforters, deriding the notion that the deity can\nchange right into wrong or that true morality needs the divine will as a\nbasis.\n\n      \"How should man be in the right against God?\n  If he long to contend with him,\n  He cannot answer him one of a thousand.\"[56]\n\n  \"Lo, he glideth by me and I see him not;\n  And he passeth on, but I perceive him not.\"[57]\n\nHis friends had recommended him to pray for pardon and repent, and had\npromised him the return of his happiness as a consequence. But Job scouts\nthe idea. His righteousness, if he indeed possess it, is his own; no\nprayers can add to, no punishment can take from, that.\n\n  \"I must make supplication unto his judgment,\n  Who doth not answer me, though I am righteous!\"[58]\n\nAnd as for a God who being almighty is yet unjust, prayer would be\nsuperfluous, no supplications would avail aught with Him; He would cause\neven incarnate holiness to appear wicked in its own eyes.\n\n  \"Though I were just, my own mouth would condemn me;\n  Though I were faultless, he would make me crooked.\"\n\nFor even the will of a created being is in the hands of its Creator, and\nis not, cannot be, free. Job feels and knows that he is right-minded and\ngood, and he puts the testimony of his own conscience above the decrees\nof any beings, human or divine, which, whatever else they may achieve,\ncannot shake the foundations of true justice and morality, which are\neternal.\n\n  \"Faultless I am, I set life at naught;\n  I spurn my being, therefore I speak out.\"[59]\n\nAnd the outcome of his outspokenness is a solemn charge of injustice\nagainst God,[60] a sigh of profound regret that he was ever born into\nthis miserable world, and a wish that his sufferings might \"come to an\nend before he should return to the land of darkness and of gloom\" whence\nhe came.\n\nAfter this, Zophar, the third comforter, opens his lips for coarse\nvituperation rather than sharp rebuke, and regrets that God Himself does\nnot feel moved to give a practical lesson of wisdom to the conceited\n\"prattler,\" who persists in believing in his own innocence in spite of\nthe unmistakable judgment of his just Creator and the unanimous testimony\nof his candid friends. Job's reply to this vigorous advocate of God is\neven more powerful and indignant than any of the foregoing. He repeats\nand emphasises his indictment against the Deity. No omnipotent being who\nwas really just and good could approve, or even connive at, much less\npractise, the scandalous injustice which characterises the conduct of the\nuniverse and the so-called moral order, and of which his own particular\ngrievances are a specimen. Not that the curious spectacle that daily\nmeets our eye, wherein wickedness and hypocrisy are prosperous and\ntriumphant while truth and integrity are trampled under foot, is\nnecessarily incompatible with absolute and eternal justice; it is\nirreconcileable only with the attributes of a personal deity, an almighty\nand just creator, who would necessarily be responsible for these evils as\nfor all things else, if he existed. If the world be the work of an\nomnipotent maker, its essential moral characteristic partakes of the\nnature of his attributes; and the main moral feature of our world is\nevil, and not good. This is the ever-recurring refrain of Job's\ndiscourses. Nor does he hesitate when occasion offers to proclaim his\nconviction in the plainest of plain language, for he entertains no fear\nof what may further befall him.\n\n  \"Lo, let him kill me, I cherish hope no more,\n  Only I will justify my way before his face.\"[61]\n\nThe three friends return a second time to the charge, each one speaking\nin the same order as before, and each one eliciting a separate reply, in\nwhich Job reaffirms his innocence, reiterates his indictment against the\nMost High, and reproaches his comforters with their off-hand condemnation\nof an attitude resulting from sufferings which they are slow to realise\nand from knowledge which they are unable to grasp. In his rejoinder to\nZophar, he lays special stress upon the prosperity and success of the\nwicked who scoff at the laws of God and yet \"while away their days in\nbliss.\" If God will not punish them, is He just? If He cannot, is He\nalmighty? As He does not, why speak of the moral order of His world or of\nthe moral attributes of Himself?\n\nEhphaz opens the third series of speeches by accusing his friend of\nselfishness, dishonesty, hard-heartedness and avarice, on no better\ngrounds than the assumption that God's justice warrants us in believing\nthat where punishment is inflicted there also must sin have been\ncommitted. Job, instead of condescending to refute the charge, ironically\nadmits it, and then bitterly remarks that he would like to know how God\nwould justify His conduct and convict him of sin if only they both could\nargue out the question together on terms of equality. But in all the\nuniverse he looks for God in vain:\n\n  \"Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,\n  And backward, but I cannot perceive him.\"[62]\n\nBildad then proceeds to emphasise the omnipotence of the Creator with\nwhom the human worm, the maggot, dares to enter into judgment, and Job\nreplies to all three, refuting them out of their own mouths. His\nconscience, he tells them, is proof sufficient of his right conduct,\nwhereas his misery, by their own admission, proves nothing at all.\n\n  \"Till I die, I will not yield up my integrity!\n  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go,\n  My heart doth not censure any one of my days.\"[63]\n\nAs for the argument from punishment to sin, all three friends had in the\ncourse of their speeches laid it down that the lines on which the\nuniverse is governed are known to no man. If this be so, who are they\nthat have surprised the secret and found the clue to the enigma? Who\nrevealed to them that retribution is the basis of the moral order? Man\nknows nothing, can never hope to know anything, of the inner working of\nthe world, of the why and the wherefore of our miserable being and of the\nexistence of all things. The Godhead alone could fathom these\nmysteries,[64] if He existed.\n\nJob takes no notice of the succeeding brief remarks of Zophar in his\nfinal and longest discourse which, replete with sorrowful reminiscences\nof his past happy life, is less defiant than any of those that preceded.\nWandering in thought through the necropolis of buried hopes, fears and\nachievements, he seems to inhale an atmosphere of soothing melancholy\nthat softens and subdues his wild passion. The vibration of past efforts\nand of deeds long since done, trembling along his tortured frame, causes\neven saddest thoughts to blend with sweet sensations. Then turning from\nwhat once was to what now is, and missing the logical nexus between the\ntwo states, he solemnly calls upon God to produce it, if He can:\n\n  \"Here is my signature; let the Almighty answer me,\n  And hear the indictment which my adversary hath written.\"[65]\n\nScarcely has Job finished speaking when Jahveh appears in a whirlwind and\nthe heart of the clouds is cloven by a voice of thunder startling the\nsilent air. The purpose of His coming is to prove men's ignorance, not to\nenlighten it, at least not beyond the degree involved by affixing the\nhighest seal to the negative views expressed by the hero. He plies Job\nwith a number of questions on cosmology, astronomy, meteorology, &c.,\nwith a view to show that we are ignorant of the ultimate reason of even\nthe most familiar objects and phenomena, and practically know nothing\nabout anything. The natural conclusion is that they are unknowable, and\nthat intellect, knowledge, consciousness, is something secondary,\naccidental, and as transitory as the life it accompanies. To make an\nexception in favour of Jahveh Himself, would be to lose sight of the\nimportant fact that His apparition was never meant by the poet to be\ntaken literally.[66]\n\nIt is neither more nor less than a symbol of the insight which Job\nobtains into the nature of things, of the light which enables him to see\nthat there is naught but darkness now and for ever. He perceives by the\nsimplest, clearest, and most conclusive of all mental processes, a direct\nintuition, the truth of the ideas to some of which he had but coldly\nassented before--viz., that things are but shadows and existence an evil;\nthat underlying every being, animate and inanimate, there is a force\nexisting outside the realm of time and space, and that it is at bottom\nidentical with the human will; that eternal justice lies at the root of\neverything, is the ultimate basis of all existence; that the sufferings\nof men, innocent or guilty, and the prevalence of evil are incompatible\nwith a personal creator; that intellect is secondary, and barely\nsufficient for the practical needs of life, after which it ceases to be\nan attribute of whatever of man may outlive his body; and, finally, that\nas we can know nothing beyond the bare fact that there is an absolute law\nof compensation from which there is no exemption, it behoves us to\ncultivate ethics rather than science, and to resign ourselves\nuncomplainingly to the inevitable.\n\nHowever unpalatable these final conclusions may appear to pious readers\naccustomed to seek in the Book of Job for the most striking proofs of\nsome of the principal teachings of the Christian dispensation, it is\ndifficult, not to say impossible, to study the work in its restored form\nand arrive at any other. With Job, God and wisdom are synonymous. And of\nthe latter he says:\n\n  \"But wisdom--whence shall it come?\n  And where is the place of understanding?\n  It is hid from the eyes of all living,\n  Our ears alone have heard thereof.\"[67]\n\nThese words were uttered before he had obtained the insight which brought\nresignation in its train. He alludes to them in his last brief discourse.\n\n  \"I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,\n  But now mine eye hath beheld thee;\n  Therefore I resign and console myself,\n  Though in dust and ashes.\"[68]\n\nProfessor Bickell puts the matter very lucidly in his short but\ncomprehensive introduction to the poem: \"As long as Job, solicitous for\nhis understanding, demanded an explanation of his unutterable suffering,\nwhereby the mysterious, piteous condition of mankind is shadowed forth,\nhis seeking was vain, and he ran the risk of loosing himself in the\nproblems of eternal justice, the worth of upright living, and even the\nexistence of God; for an unjust, ruthless, almighty being is no God. But\nby means of the theophany--which is to be understood merely as a process\nin his own heart, and which clearly shows him the impotence of feeble man\nto unravel the world-enigmas--he attains to insight; not, indeed, of a\npositive kind such as a knowledge of the ways of God would confer, but\nnegative insight by means of that resignation which flows from excess of\npain. It is thus that his own heroic saying is fulfilled about the\nreaction of unmerited suffering upon the just man.\"[69]\n\n  \"But the righteous holds on his way,\n  And the clean-handed waxeth ever stronger.\"[70]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[51] The prologue is contained in chaps. i.-ii.; the epilogue in chap.\n    xlii. 7-17 of our English Bibles.\n\n[52] Strophe xxxv.\n\n[53] Strophe lii.\n\n[54] Psa. viii. 4, 5.\n\n[55] Strophe liii.\n\n[56] Strophe lxv.\n\n[57] Strophe lxix.\n\n[58] Strophe lxxi.\n\n[59] Strophe lxxiii.\n\n[60] Strophe lxxiv-lxxviii.\n\n[61] Strophe cxv. _Cf_. strophe clxix., where he dares his friend to\n    prove him guilty of blasphemy when he is merely giving expression\n    to the truth:\n\n      \"If indeed ye will glorify yourselves above me,\n      And prove me guilty of blasphemy;\n      Know, then, that God hath wronged me!\"\n\n[62] Strophe ccxvii.\n\n[63] Strophe ccxxx.\n\n[64] As Professor Bickell rightly remarks: \"At bottom what Job means is,\n    that God alone knows the meaning of our sorrowful existence, if,\n    indeed, He does know it\" (\"Das Buch Job,\" p. 5).\n\n[65] Strophe cclxxvi.\n\n[66] The mere circumstance that the Deity is no longer called by His\n    usual name when He appears in the whirlwind is of itself an\n    indication that the poet was not alluding to God.\n\n[67] Strophe ccxxxiv.\n\n[68] Strophe cccix.\n\n[69] _Cf._ Bickell, _op. cit._ pp. 8-9.\n\n[70] Strophe clvi.\n\n\n\n\nKOHELETH\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[Greek: Archaen men mae phynai epichthonioisin ariston Maed' eisidein\naugas oxeos ae\u00ebliou. Phynta d'hopos okista pylas Aidao peraesai, Kai\nkeisthai pollaen gaen epamaesamenon.]\n\nTheognis.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCONDITION OF THE TEXT\n\nOf all the books of the Old Testament, not excepting the Song of Songs,\nnone offers such rich materials to the historian of philosophy or such\nknotty problems to the philological critic as Koheleth[70] or\nEcclesiastes. This interesting treatise is, in its commonly received\nshape, little more than a tissue of loose disjointed aphorisms and\ncontradictory theses concerning the highest problems of ethics and\nmetaphysics. The form of the work is characterised by an utter lack of\nplan; the matter by almost impenetrable obscurity. So completely\nentangled are the various threads of thought, that few commentators or\ncritics possessed the needful degree of hope and courage to set about\nunravelling them. One paragraph, for instance, is saturated with\nBuddhistic pessimism; another breathes a spirit of religious resignation,\nof almost hearty hopefulness; this sentence lays down a universal\nprinciple which is absolutely denied by the next; the thesis is followed\nby proofs, in the very midst of which lurks the antithesis; a series of\nprofound remarks upon one subject is suddenly interrupted by bald\nstatements about another, the irrelevancy of which is suggestive of the\nravings of a delirious fever patient. Thus one verse begins[71] by\nrecommending men to make the most of their youth by following the bent of\ntheir inclinations and the desire of their eyes, such enjoyment being a\ngift of God,[72] and finishes by threatening all who act upon the advice\nwith condign punishment to be ultimately dealt out by God Himself; and\nthe very next verse proceeds to draw the logical conclusion, which oddly\nenough, runs thus: \"_therefore_ drive sorrow from thy heart, and put\naway evil from thy flesh.\" In one place[73] the writer solemnly and sadly\naffirms that the destiny of the upright and the wicked, the wise and the\nfoolish is wholly alike; in another[74] he seems to proclaim that the\nunrighteous shall suffer for their evil-doing, while the God-fearing\nshall be rewarded with long life, which again he stoutly denies shortly\nbefore and immediately afterwards. It is impossible to read chap. ii. 11\nand 12 without coming to the conclusion that we either have to do with\nthe incoherent ravings of a disordered mind, or else that the leaves of\nthe original manuscript were dislocated and then put together\nhaphazard.[75] The \"for\" that connects the seventh and eighth verses of\nchapter vi. is forcibly suggestive of the line of argument which made\nTenterden Steeple the cause of Goodwin Sands, while the nexus between the\nsixth and seventh verses of chapter xi. is scarcely more obvious than\nthat which is to be found between any two of the nonsense verses that\namuse intelligent children in \"Alice in Wonderland.\" And yet this\nproduction, in its present chaotic condition, has been, and is still,\ngravely attributed to the pen of King Solomon in his character as the\nideal sage of humanity![76]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[70] The most satisfactory translation of the word Koheleth is, the\n    Speaker. \"Preacher\" conveys a modern and incorrect notion.\n\n[71] xi. 9.\n\n[72] ii. 24.\n\n[73] ix. 2.\n\n[74] viii. 12, 13.\n\n[75] The verses in question are: \"11. Then I looked on all the works that\n    my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to\n    do: and, behold, all _was_ vanity and vexation of spirit, and _there\n    was_ no profit under the sun. 12. And I turned myself to behold\n    wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what _can_ the man _do_ that\n    cometh after the king _even_ that which hath been already done.\"\n\n[76] Only, however, by the strictest of orthodox theologians, who\n    admiringly attribute to the Holy Spirit a hopeless confusion of\n    ideas which they would resent as insulting if predicated of\n    themselves. As a matter of historic fact, Solomon, so far from\n    meriting his reputation as a philosopher, was a rough-and-ready\n    kinglet, who ruled his subjects with a rod of iron and ground\n    them down with intolerable burdens.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPRIMITIVE FORM OF THE BOOK\n\nThe desperate efforts of professional theologians to smooth away,\nexplain, and reconcile all these incoherences and contradictions,\nconstitute one of the most marvellous exhibitions of mental acrobatics\nrecorded even in the history of hermeneutics. Many of these exegetes set\nout on the assumption that a revelation vouchsafed to Solomon could not\npossibly embody any statement incompatible with the truths of\nChristianity which emanate from the same eternal source; and they all\nfirmly held that at the very least it must be in harmony with the\nfundamental dogmas common to Judaism and the teachings of Christ. In\nreality, what this generous hypothesis came to, whenever there was no\nquestion of text criticism involved, was a substitution of the human\nideal for the divine execution. The best accredited contemporary\ntheologians however, Catholic and non-Catholic, have insight enough to\ndescry the stamp of true inspiration in a book which enshrines some of\nthe highest truths laid down in the Sermon on the Mount combined with a\ngood deal that obviously clashes with theological dogmas formulated at a\nmuch later date for the behoof of a very different social organism. In\nany case the original work, as it appears to have issued from the hand of\n\"Koheleth,\" was composed in a spirit as conducive to true morality as the\nsublime eloquence of Isaiah or the absolute resignation of the author of\nthe 73rd Psalm. Critics who succeeded in satisfactorily solving many of\nthe philological, philosophical, and historical problems suggested by\nKoheleth utterly failed to find therein any traces of an intelligible\nplan. It was reserved to Professor Bickell, of Vienna, to point out what\nseem to be the true lines on which alone it is possible to arrive at a\nsolution alike satisfactory to the reader and respectful to the author.\nHis theory[77]--it is, and it can be no more than a theory--which has\nalready received the adhesion of some of the most authoritative Bible\nscholars on the Continent, may be briefly summed up as follows: The\npresent disordered condition of the book, Koheleth, is the result of the\nshifting of the sheets of the Hebrew manuscript from their original\nplaces and of the addition of a number of deliberate interpolations. The\nlatter are of two kinds: those which seemed necessary for the purpose of\nsupplying the cement required to join together the unconnected verses\nwhich, in consequence of the dislocation, were unexpectedly placed side\nby side, and the passages composed with the object of toning down, or\nserving as a counterpoise to the very unorthodox views of the writer.\n\nProfessor Bickell's assumption involves no inherent improbability, runs\ncounter to no ascertained facts, and is therefore perfectly tenable. What\nit supposes to have occurred to Koheleth has, in fact, often happened to\nother works, religious and profane. It can be conclusively shown, for\ninstance, that certain leaves of the Book of Ecclesiasticus dropped, in\nlike manner, from the Greek Codex, whereby three chapters were transposed\nfrom their original places; for the Latin and Syriac versions, which were\nmade before the accident, still exhibit the original and only\nintelligible arrangement. An old Syriac manuscript of the poems of Isaac\nof Antioch, now in the Vatican Library, suffered considerably from a\nsimilar mishap, and various other cases in point have come under the\nnotice of orientalists and archaeologists.[78] In the present instance,\nwhat is believed to have taken place is this. The Hebrew Codex, of which\nno translation had as yet been made, consisted of a series of fascicules,\neach one of which contained four sheets once folded, or four double\nleaves, the average number of characters on each single leaf amounting to\nabout 525.[79] The Codex, which most probably included other treatises\npreceding and following Koheleth, possessed an unknown number of\nfascicules, Koheleth beginning on the sixth leaf of one and ending on the\nthird of the fourth following. According to the hypothesis we are\nconsidering, the middle fascicules becoming loose, fell out of the Codex,\nand were found by some one who was utterly unqualified to replace them in\nposition. This person took the inner half of the second,[80] folded it\ninside out, and then laid it in the new order[81] immediately after the\nfirst fascicule. Next came the inner sheet of the third fascicule,[82]\nfollowed by the outside half of the second,[83] in the middle of which\nthe two double leaves, 13, 18, and 14, 17, had already been inserted.[84]\nAlthough the fourth fascicule had kept its place, it was not on this\naccount preserved from the effects of the confusing changes caused by the\nloosening of the ligature, for between its two first leaves the remaining\nsheet of the third fascicule[85] found a place. Finally, leaf 17 becoming\nseparated from its new environment, found a definite resting-place\nbetween 19 and 21.[86] The result of this dislocation was the utter\ndisappearance of all trace of plan in the work, the incoherences of which\nwould be still more numerous and glaring, had it not been for the\ntransitional words and phrases that were soon after interpolated for the\npurpose of welding together passages that were never intended to\ndovetail.[87]\n\nSuch is the ingenious theory. The degree of probability attaching to it\ndepends partly on the weight of corroborative evidence to be found in the\nbook itself, and partly on the completeness with which it explains the\nmany difficulties which the traditionalist view could but formulate.\nThoroughly to sift and weigh this evidence, much of which is of a purely\nphilological character, would require a book to itself; but it will not\nbe amiss to give one or two instances of the nature of the arguments\nrelied upon.\n\nChap. x. 1, in the present text, is wholly corrupt, owing to the\ncircumstance that several interpolations were inserted in it at a later\ndate. Now a little reflection suffices to show that these additions\nconsist of words taken from chap. vii. 1. But if the book had been\ncomposed as it now stands, such a transposition would be practically\nimpossible, because chap. x. is separated from chap. vii. by too great an\ninterval. In the original sequence, however, which Prof. Bickell's theory\nsupposes and restores, there was no difficulty. There the leaf ix. 11-x.\n1 was followed by two leaves containing vi. 8-vii. 22, so that the words\n\"precious,\" and \"wisdom is better than glory,\" might have been easily\nshifted to x. 1 from the margin of vii. 1.\n\nAgain, in the primitive sequence viii. 4 was immediately followed by x.\n2. After the dislocation of the leaves it was erroneously placed before\nviii. 6, a few words having been previously interpolated between the two,\nsolely in the interests of orthodoxy.[88] In order to bridge over the gap\nbetween them, a transitional half verse was strung together, in an\nabsolutely mechanical manner, from words that precede or follow. And the\nwords that precede and follow are those which we find in the primitive\narrangement of the manuscript, not in the present sequence. Thus, at the\nbottom of the leaf containing viii. 4, the first words, \"leb\nchakham,\"[89] of the following verse (x. 2) were inserted, and then by\ninadvertence repeated on the next leaf. Seeing these words, the author of\nthe transition made them the subject of his new verse. He selected the\ngrammatical objects of the sentence from the verse which follows in the\nnew sequence,[90] and took the verb from the preceding half verse, which\nis itself an older interpolation.\n\nLastly, Koheleth's treatise, which in our Bibles is utterly devoid of\norder or sequence, falls naturally, in its restored form, into two\ndistinct halves: a speculative and a practical, distinguished from each\nother by characteristics proper to each, which there is no mistaking. The\nformer, for instance, contains but few metrical passages, whereas the\nlatter is composed of poetry and prose in almost equal proportions. The\nethical part continually addresses the reader himself in the second\nperson singular, while the discursive section never does. In a word,\ninternal evidence leaves no doubt that, whether the dislocation of the\nchapters was the result of accident or design, this was the ground plan\nof the original treatise.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[77] Professor Cheyne discusses Bickell's theory with the caution\n    characteristic of English theology and the fairness of unprejudiced\n    scholarship (\"Job and Solomon,\" p. 273 fol.).\n\n[78]  _Cf_. for instance, Cornill, \"Theologisches Literaturblatt,\"\n    Sept. 19, 1884.\n\n[79] This mean estimate tallies with calculations made by the late\n    Professor Lagarde for another book of the Old Testament.\n\n[80] The leaves 6, 7, 8, 9.\n\n[81] The pages following each other thus: 8, 9, 6, 7.\n\n[82] Leaves 15 and 16.\n\n[83] 4, 5, 10, 11.\n\n[84] So that the order was then: 4, 5, 13, 14, 17, 18, 10, 11.\n\n[85] 12, 19.\n\n[86] The sequence of the leaves was then; 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 6, 7, 15, 16, 4,\n    5, 13, 14, 18, 10, 11, 20, 12, 19, 17, 21, 22.\n\n[87] The most practical and simple way of realising Professor Bickell's\n    theory is to make a little book of four fascicules of four double\n    leaves each. On these leaves write the contents of the original\n    manuscript leaves in chapter and verse numbers. On each of the three\n    last leaves of the first fascicule (counting, as in Hebrew, from\n    right to left) write i. 1-ii. 11. On the first two leaves of the\n    second fascicule write v. 9-vi. 7 (this must be written on each of\n    the leaves, as it is not quite certain how they were divided). On\n    third and fourth leaves of the second fascicule write iii. 9-iv. 8;\n    on each of the fifth and sixth leaves, ii. 12-iii. 8. On the seventh\n    and eighth leaves, viii. 6-ix. 3. Then comes the third fascicule. On\n    the first leaf, write ix. 11-x. 1; on the second and third leaves,\n    vi. 8-vii. 22 on the fourth and fifth leaves, iv. 9-v. 8; on the\n    sixth leaf, x. 16-xi. 6; on the seventh leaf, vii. 23-viii. 5; on the\n    eighth leaf, x. 2-15. Lastly comes the fourth fascicule. On the first\n    leaf, ix. 3-10, on the second and third leaves, xi. 7-xii. 8.\n\n[88] The first half of viii. 5: \"Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel\n    no evil thing.\" This interpolation is older than the accident to\n    the MS.\n\n[89] The heart of the wise.\n\n[90] viii. 6.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKOHELET'S THEORY OF LIFE\n\nRead in its primitive shape, the book is a systematic disquisition on the\nquestions, What positive boon has life in store for us? to which the\nemphatic answer is \"None;\" and How had we best occupy the vain days of\nour wretched existence? which the author solves by recommending moderate\nsensuous enjoyment combined with healthy activity. He begins his gloomy\nmeditations with a general survey of the wearisome working of the\nmachinery of the world, wherein is neither rest nor profit. Everything is\nvanity, and the pursuit of wind.[91] Existence in all its myriad forms is\nan aimless, endless, hopeless endeavour. The very clod of earth manifests\nits striving, in gravitation, for the attainment of a central point\nwithout dimensions, which, if realised, would entail its own\nannihilation; the solids tend to become liquids, the liquids to resolve\nthemselves in vapour. The plant grows from germ through stem and leaf to\nblossom and fruit, which last is but the beginning of a new germ that\nagain develops through flower to fruit, and so on for ever and ever. In\nanimals, life is the same restless, aimless, unsatisfied striving, in the\nfirst place after reproduction, followed by the death of the individual\nand the appearance of a new one which in turn runs through all the stadia\nof the old. The very matter of all organisms is ever changing. As for\nman, his whole life is but one long series of yearnings after objects,\neach one of which presents itself to his will as the one great goal until\nattained, whereupon it is cast aside to make way for another. We know\nwhat we long for to-day, we shall know what we shall seek to-morrow; but\nwhat the human race supremely desires, its ultimate aim and end, no man\ncan say. Existence is a futile beating of the air, a clutching of the\nwind. The living make way for the unborn, the dead nourish the living; no\none possesses ought that was not torn from some other being; strife and\nhate, evil and pain are the commonplaces of existence; life and death\nfollow each other everlastingly. All striving is want and therefore\nsuffering, until it is satisfied, when it assumes the form of\ndisappointment; for no satisfaction is lasting. In a word, the universe\nis a wheel that revolves on its axis for ever--and there is no ultimate\naim or end in it all.[92] Knowledge, wisdom, and enjoyment, each of which\nKoheleth characterises by a distich, are likewise vain, or worse. What,\nthen, is the secret of \"happiness\"? Surely not wealth, which the Preacher\nhimself having possessed and applied to \"useful\" and \"good\" purposes,\nproved emptiness in the end.[93] Wealth, indeed, is nothing if not a\nmeans to happiness, yet experience tells us that the pains endured in\nstriving for it, and the anxiety suffered in preserving it, effectually\ndestroy our capacity for enjoying the bliss which it is supposed to\ninsure, long before misfortune or death snatches it from our grasp.[94]\n\nVain as pleasure is, in a world of positive evils it is at least a\nnegative good, in that it helps to make us forget the vanity of the days\nof our life.[95] For this reason, no doubt, it is well-nigh unattainable,\nthe many being deprived of the means, the few of the capacity, of\nenjoyment.[96]\n\nPassing on to the consideration of wisdom, the Hebrew philosopher finds\nit equally empty and vain, because subject to the same limitations and\ncharacterised by the same drawbacks. It is caviare to the million, and a\nfresh source of sorrow to the few. Man is tortured with a thirst for\nknowledge, and yet all the springs at which it might have been allayed\nare sealed up. Unreal shadows are the objects of human intuition, we are\ndenied a glimpse of the underlying reality. For it is unknowable.\n\nEven the little we can know is not inspiriting. Take our fellow-men,\ntheir ways and works, for instance, and what do we behold? Their own\nevil-doing, injustice, and violence, drag them down to the level of the\nbrute; and that this is their natural level is obvious, if we bear in\nmind that the end of men is that of the beasts of the fields,[97] and\nthat the ruling power within them, the mechanism, so to say, of these\nliving and feeling automata is love of life. Consider men at their\nbest--when cultivating such relative \"virtues\" as industry, zeal,\ndiligence in their crafts and callings, and we find these \"good\" actions\ntainted at the very source: love of self and jealousy of others being the\ndetermining motives.[98] In any case we see that work is no help to\nhappiness, for it is too evident that toil and moil--even that of the\nwriter himself, who knows full well that he is labouring for a\nstranger--is but the price we pay, not for real pleasure, but for carking\ncare and poignant grief.[99] Such being the bitter fruits of knowledge,\nthe tree on which they flourish is scarcely worth cultivating.\n\nWisdom in its ethical aspect, as a rule of right conduct, is unavailing\nas a weapon to combat the Fate that fights against man. Nay, it is not\neven a guarantee that we shall be remembered by those who come after us,\nand whose lot we have striven to render less unbearable than our own. The\nmemory of the dead is buried in their graves,[100] and the wheels of the\nvast machine revolve as if they had never lived. For a man's moral worth\ngoes for nothing in the scale against Fate, whose laws operate with\ncrushing regularity, unmodified by his virtues or his crimes.[101]\nIndeed, if there be any perceptible difference between the lot of the\nupright and that of the wicked, it is often to the advantage of the\nlatter, who are furthered by their fierce recklessness and borne onwards\nby ambition.[102] The knowledge of this curious state of things serves\nbut to encourage evil-doers.[103] The obvious conclusion is that instead\nof fighting against Fate which is unalterable--\"I discovered that\nwhatever God doeth is forever\"[104]--we should resign ourselves to our\nlot and draw the practical inference from the fact that life is an evil.\n\nWisdom in its practical aspect is equally unpromising. In no walk of life\nis success the meed of merit or victory the unfailing guerdon of\nheroism.[105] Such wisdom as is within man's reach is often a positive\ndisadvantage in life, owing to the modesty it inspires as pitted against\nthe self-confidence of noisy fools. Besides, should it contrive to build\nup a stately structure, a small dose of folly, with which all human\nwisdom is largely alloyed, is capable, in an instant, of undoing the work\nof years.[106] In a word, the wise man is often worse off than the fool;\nand in any case, no degree of wisdom can influence the laws of the\nuniverse; what happens is foredoomed; a man's life-journey is mapped out\nbeforehand, and it is hopeless to struggle with the Will which is\nmightier than his own. As we know not what is pre-arranged, we can never\nfind out what will dovetail with our true interests or is really good for\nman.[107]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[91] i. 2-11\n\n[92] _Cf._ Schopenhauer, vol. i. 401-402, and _passim_.\n\n[93] ii. 3-11.\n\n[94] v. 9-16.\n\n[95] Pain, then, for Koheleth, as for a greater than Koheleth, is\n    something positive; pleasure, on the contrary, negative. \"We feel\n    pain, but not painlessness; we feel care, but not exemption from\n    it; fear, but not safety.... Only pain and privation are perceived as\n    positive and announce themselves; well-being, on the contrary, is\n    merely negative. Hence it is that we are never conscious of the three\n    greatest boons of life--health, youth, and freedom as such, so long\n    as we possess them, but only when we have lost them: for they too are\n    negations.... The hours fly the quicker the pleasanter they are; they\n    drag themselves on the slowlier the more painfully they are passed,\n    because pain, not enjoyment, is the something positive whose presence\n    makes itself felt.\"--Schopenhauer, ed. Grisebach, ii. 676, 677.\n\n[96] v. 17-vi. 7; iii. 9, 12-13.\n\n[97] iii. 19-iv. 3.\n\n[98] iv. 4-6.\n\n[99] iv. 7, 8; ii. 18-23.\n\n[100] ii. 13-16.\n\n[101] iii. 1-8, viii. 6-8.\n\n[102] viii. 9-14.\n\n[103] viii. 14, ix. 3.\n\n[104] iii. 14.\n\n[105] ix. 11-12.\n\n[106] ix. 13-18, x. 1.\n\n[107] vi. 8, 10-12.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPRACTICAL WISDOM\n\nHaving thus cleared the ground in the first part of the treatise,\nKoheleth proceeds to erect his own modest system in the second. As life\noffers us no positive good, those who, in spite of this obvious fact,\ndesire it, must make the best of such negative advantages as are within\ntheir grasp. Although so far from being a boon, it is an evil, yet it\nmay, he points out, be rendered less irksome by following certain\npractical rules; and warming to his subject, he winds up with an\nexhortation to snatch such pleasures as are within reach, for when all\naccounts have been finally cast up and everything has been said and done,\nall things will prove vanity, and a grasping of wind.\n\nThe ethics open with six metrical strophes composed, so to say, in the\nminor key, which harmonises with the disheartening conclusions of the\nforegoing. The theme is the Horatian _Levius fit patientia quicquid\ncorrigere est nefas._ Death is better than life, grief more becoming\nthan mirth, contemplation preferable to desire, deliberation more\nserviceable than haste.[108] The fleeting joys and the abiding evils of\nexistence, are to be taken as we find them, seeing that it is beyond our\npower to alter the proportions in which they are mixed, even by the\npractice of virtue and the application of knowledge. Hence even in the\ncultivation of righteousness the rule, _Ne quid nimis_, is to be\nimplicitly followed: \"Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself\noverwise.\"[109] On the other hand, wisdom is not to be despised, for it\nhardens us against the strokes of Fate, and renders us insensible to the\ninsults of our fellows.[110] It also teaches us the drawbacks of\nisolation, the benefits of co-operation, and the advantage of being open\nto counsel.[111] The basis of all practical wisdom being resignation to\nthe inevitable, obedience to God is better than sacrifices destined to\ninfluence His action. What He does, is done for ever, and our efforts are\npowerless to alter it, or to induce Him to change it.[112] God is far\noff, unknowable, inaccessible, and man is here upon earth, and such\nprayers as we feel disposed to offer, had best be short and few; vows\ntoo, although to be carried out if once made, serve no good purpose, and\nare to be avoided. In a word, wild speculations and many words in matters\nof religion and theology are vain and pernicious.[113] That work and\nenterprise are beneficial in public and private life is obvious from a\nstudy of the results engendered by their opposites.[114] Simple\nindividuals, no less than rulers, may benefit by enterprise and\ninitiative, provided that prudence, by multiplying the possibilities of\nprofit, leaves as little as possible to the vagaries of chance.[115] But\nprudence is especially needed in order to avoid the seductive wiles of\nwoman, against whom one must be ever on one's guard.[116] It also enjoins\nupon us submission to the political ruler of the day, who possesses the\npower to enforce his will, and is therefore a living embodiment of the\ninevitable.[117] In a word, this practical wisdom assumes the form of a\ncareful adjustment of means to the end in all the ups and downs of\nexistence.[118]\n\nAfter this follows the recommendation of the negative good: the sensuous\njoys within our reach. Seeing that no man knows what evil is before him,\nnor what things will happen after him, he cannot go far astray, supposing\nhim to be actuated by a desire to make the best of life, if he tastes in\nmoderation of the pleasures that lie on his path, including those of\nlabour.[119] The young generation should, in an especial manner, take\nthis to heart and pluck the rosebuds while it may, for old age and death\nare hurriedly approaching to prove by their presence that all is vanity\nand a grasping of wind.[120]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[108] vii. 1-6, vi. 9, vii. 7-9.\n\n[109] vii. 10, 13-14, 15-18.\n\n[110] vii. 21-22.\n\n[111] iv. 9-16.\n\n[112] iii. 14.\n\n[113] v. 1-7.\n\n[114] v. 7-8, x. 16-20.\n\n[115] x. 1-3, 6, 4, 5.\n\n[116] vii. 26-29.\n\n[117] viii. 1-4, x. 2-7.\n\n[118] x. 8-14a, 15.\n\n[119] x. 14b, ix. 3-10, xi. 7-10.\n\n[120] xi. 9, xii. 8.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKOHELETH'S PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE\n\nKoheleth, who agrees with Job in so many other essential points, is\nlikewise at one with him in his views on human knowledge, or, as he terms\nit, wisdom, which is the source of the highest good within the reach of\nman. The only light which we have to guide us through the murky mazes of\nexistence, is at best but a miserable taper which serves only to render\nthe eternal darkness painfully visible. \"I set my heart to learn wisdom\nand understanding. And my heart discerned much wisdom and knowledge.... I\nrealised that this also is but a grasping of wind.\"[121] The scenes it\nreveals in the moral as well as the material order are of a nature to\nmake us hate existence. \"Then I loathed life.\"[122] Indeed, the so-called\nmoral order which, were it, in theory, what it is asserted to be in\ntruth, might reconcile us to our lot and kindle a spark of hope in the\nhuman breast, is but the embodiment of rank immorality. \"All things come\nalike to all indiscriminately; the one fate overtaketh the upright man\nand the miscreant, the clean and the unclean, him who sacrifices and him\nwho sacrifices not, the just and the sinner.\"[123] What then is life?\n\nTo this question the answer is, in effect, \"The shadow of a thing which\nis not.\" The sights and sounds of the universe are the only materials\nupon which the human intellect can work; and they are all alike empty,\nshadowy, unreal. They are the creation of the mind itself, the web it\nweaves from its own gossamer substance; and beyond this are nothing.\nSpace and time, or, as Koheleth expresses it, the universe and eternity,\nwere placed in our consciousness from the very first, and are as\ndeceptive as the mirage of the desert.[124] Kant would define them to be\nfunctions of the brain. A projection of the organ of human thought, the\nworld is woven of three threads--space, time, and causality--which, being\nidentical with the mind, appear and vanish with it. The one underlying\nreality, whether we term it God, Nature, or Will, is absolutely\nunknowable,[125] and everything else is Maya or illusion.\n\nStrange as this doctrine may sound in orthodox ears, it contains, so far,\nnothing incompatible with Christianity, which teaches that time and space\nwill disappear along with this transitory existence, and that the one\neternal and incomprehensible Will is outside the sphere of both and\nexempt from the operation of the law of cause and effect. The only\ndifference between the two is that Christianity admits the existence of\nmany beings outside the realm of space and time, whereas without space\nand time multiplicity is inconceivable, impossible.\n\nWe cannot hope to know the one reality which is and acts underneath the\nappearances of which our world is made up, because knowledge is for ever\nformed, coloured and bounded by time, space, and causation, and all three\nare unreal. They alone constitute succession and multiplicity, which are\ntherefore only apparent, not existent. We can conceive nothing but what\nis, was, or will be (and therefore in time), nothing outside ourselves\nbut what is in space, and absolutely nought that is not a cause or an\neffect. \"Far off is that which is, and deep, deep, who can fathom\nit?\"[126]\n\nBut we possess insight and understanding enough to enable us to perceive\nthat life is a positive evil, as, indeed, all evil, pain, and suffering\nare positive; that pleasures are few, and being negative by their nature,\nmerely serve to make us less sensible of the evils of existence; that\nhappiness is a chimaera, birth a curse, death a boon,[127] and absolute\nnothingness (Nirvana) the only real good. The hope of improvement,\nprogress, evolution, is a cruel mockery; for the present is but a\nrehearsal of the past; the future will be a repetition of both;[128]\neverything that is and will be, was; \"what came into being had been long\nbefore, and what will be was long ago.\"[129] In a word, what we term\nprogress is but the movement of a vast wheel revolving on its axis\neverlastingly.\n\nBut may we not hope for some better and higher state in the future life\nbeyond the tomb where vice will be punished and virtue rewarded? To this\nquery Koheleth's reply, like that given by Job, is an emphatic negative;\nand yet the doctrines of the immortality of the soul and of the\nresurrection were rapidly making headway among the writer's\ncontemporaries. But he descries nothing in the material or moral order of\nthe world to warrant any such belief. What is there in material man that\nhe should be immortal? \"Men are an accident, and the beasts are an\naccident, and the same accident befalleth them all; as these die even so\ndie those, and the selfsame breath have they all, nor is there any\npreeminence of man above beast; for all is nothingness.\"[130] Nor can any\nsuch flattering hope be grounded upon the moral order, because there are\nno signs of morality in the conduct of the world. \"To righteous men that\nhappeneth which should befall wrong-doers, and that betideth criminals\nwhich should fall to the lot of the upright.\"[131] Nay, \"there are just\nmen who perish _through_ their righteousness, and there are wicked\nmen who prolong their lives _by means_ of their iniquity.\"[132] Of\ndivine promises and revelations Koheleth--who can hardly claim to be\nconsidered a theist, and whose God is Fate, Nature, eternal Will--knows\nnothing. The most favourable judgment he can pass upon such theological\nspeculations is far from encouraging: \"in the multitude of fancies and\nprattle there likewise lurketh much vanity.\"[133] In eternal justice,\nhowever, he professes a strong belief, and, like Job, he formulates his\nfaith in the words: \"Fear thou God.\"[134]\n\nTo accuse Koheleth of Epicureanism is to take a one-sided view of his\nphilosophy. His conception of life, its pleasures and pains, is as\nclearly and emphatically expressed as that of the Buddha or of\nSchopenhauer. He is an uncompromising pessimist, who sees the world as it\nis. Everything that seems pleasant or profitable is vanity and a grasping\nof wind; there is nothing positive but pain, nothing real but the eternal\nWill, which is certainly unknowable and probably unconscious. These\ntruths, however, are not grasped by every one; they are the bitter fruits\nof that rare knowledge, increase of which is increase of sorrow. The few\nwho taste thereof cling too tenaciously to life, though life be wedded to\nsorrow and misery, to renounce such deceitful pleasures as are within\ntheir reach; and the bulk of mankind revel in the empty joys of living.\nTo all such, Koheleth offers some practical rules of conduct to enable\nthem to make the best of what is to be had; but the gist of his\ndiscourse is identical with those of Jesus, of the Buddha, of\nSchopenhauer--renunciation.\n\nHuman pleasures, whatever their origin, are limited in degree by man's\ncapacity for enjoyment; and this is an inborn gift, varying in different\nindividuals but unchanging in each. Some dispositions, cheerful and\nsanguine by nature, tinge even the blackest clouds of misfortune with the\nrainbow hues of hope; others impart a sombre colour to the most\nauspicious event, and descry cause for dread in the most complete\nsuccess, just as the bee sucks honey from the flower which yields only\npoison to the adder. All joys, although produced by the chemistry of our\nconsciousness, are drawn either from within its inner sphere or from\nwithout. The former, known as intellectual pleasures, are relatively\nlasting because they emanate from what man is; the latter are fleeting\nbecause their source is either what he has or what he seems. These are\nnever free from alloy; preceded by the pain of desire, they are\naccompanied by that of disenchantment and followed by tedium, the worst\npain of all; those are exempt from all three, because instead of\ngratifying passing whims they free the intellect from drudging for the\nwill and afford it momentary glimpses of truth. Wisdom therefore, for\nKoheleth as for Job, is the greatest boon that can fall to man's\nlot.[135] And yet the law of compensation, operating here as in all other\nspheres, sensibility to pain is always proportionate to capacity for\nintellectual enjoyment.\n\nWith regard to the pleasures of possession, seeing that they are often\ndifficult of attainment and always precarious, we must be moderate in\ntheir pursuit and make the most of such as fall to our lot. Contentment\nhere is everything, and contentment is the result of an even balance\nbetween desire and fulfilment, the former being always in our power and\nthe latter generally beyond our control. To such happiness as possession\ncan bestow, it is immaterial whether our demands are lowered or our\nprosperity increased, just as in arithmetic it matters not whether we\ndivide the denominator of a fraction or multiply its numerator by the\nsame number. Therefore, \"Better look with the eyes than wander with\ndesire.\"[136] The golden rule is to keep our wishes within the bounds of\nmoderation, and to adjust them to unfavourable circumstances. The rich\nman who wants nothing and covets a mere trifle which is beyond his grasp,\nis supremely wretched, while the poor man who needs much but longs for\nnothing, is cheerful and contented. But even if wealth were as easily\nobtained as it is difficult, the law of compensation should deter us from\nseeking it. \"Sweet is the sleep of the toiler, but his wealth suffereth\nnot the rich man to slumber.\"[137] The only enjoyments common to all men\nare those which consist in the satisfaction of natural wants; the\npleasures which wealth can purchase over and above these are trifling,\nand more than outweighed by the pain of carking care which it brings in\nits train. He who labours for this is, therefore, cutting a stick for his\nown back: \"all his days are sorrows and his work grief.\"[138] \"There is\nno good for man,\" then--for the common run of mankind who, debarred from\nintellectual enjoyment, yet cling tenaciously to life--\"save that he\nshould eat and drink, and make glad his soul in his labour.\"[139] Health\nbeing the condition of all enjoyment, and one of the greatest of earthly\nboons, care should be taken to preserve it by eating, drinking, labour,\nand rest, and by moderation in all things. For painlessness, which is\npositive, is always to be preferred to pleasure, which is negative. It\nmatters little to the strong man that he is otherwise hale and thriving,\nif he suffer from an excruciating toothache or lumbago. He forgets\neverything else and thinks only of his misery. The world, then, being a\nterrestrial hell, they who love it as a dwelling-place cannot do better\nthan try to construct a fireproof abode therein. To hunt for pleasures\nwhile exposing oneself to the risk of pain is folly; to escape suffering\neven at the sacrifice of enjoyments is worldly wisdom. As Aristotle put\nit, [Greek: _ho phronimos to alupon diokei, ou to haedu_.] But when\nall has been said and done, the highest worldly wisdom is but a less\nharmful species of folly. Existence is an evil, and the sole effective\nremedy renunciation.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[121] i. 17, 16b.\n\n[122] ii. 17.\n\n[123] ix. 2.\n\n[124] iii. 11.\n\n[125] vii. 24, _cf_. also v. 1.\n\n[126] vii. 24, _cf_. also viii. 16, 17.\n\n[127] \"I appraised the dead who died long since, as happier than the\n    quick who are yet alive; but luckier than both him who is still\n    unborn, who hath not yet witnessed the evil doings under the\n    sun,\" iv. 2, 3.\n\n[128] In truth, time existing only in the intellect as one of the forms\n    of intuition, there can be neither past nor future, but an\n    everlasting now.\n\n[129] iii. 15.\n\n[130] iii. 19.\n\n[131] viii. 14.\n\n[132] vii. 15.\n\n[133] v. 7.\n\n[134] _Ibid._\n\n[135] vii. 11, 12.\n\n[136] vi. 9.\n\n[137] v. 12.\n\n[138] ii. 23.\n\n[139] ii. 24.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE SOURCES OF KOHELETH'S PHILOSOPHY\n\nTo what extent are these pessimistic doctrines the fruits of Koheleth's\nown meditations, and how far may they be supposed to reflect the views of\nthe nation which admitted his treatise into its sacred canon? The latter\nhalf of this question is answered by the desperate efforts made from the\nvery beginning to correct or dilute his pessimism, and by the grave\nsuspicion with which Jewish doctors continued to regard it, long after\nthe \"poison\" had been provided with a suitable antidote. Thus the book\nknown as the Wisdom of Solomon, which is accepted as canonical by the\nRoman Catholic Church, contains a flat contradiction and emphatic\ncondemnation of certain of the propositions laid down by Koheleth, as,\nfor instance, in ch. ii. 1-9, which is obviously a studied refutation of\nKoheleth's principal thesis, couched mainly in the identical words used\nby the Preacher himself:\n\n    \"For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not\n    right: the time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end\n    of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to\n    have returned from hell.\n\n    \"For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as\n    if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke;\n    and speech a spark to move our hearts.\n\n    \"Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our\n    spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass\n    away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist,\n    which is driven away by the beams of the sun, and overpowered\n    with the heat thereof.\n\n    \"And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall\n    have any remembrance of our works.\n\n    \"For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is\n    no going back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man\n    returneth.\n\n    \"Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are\n    present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth.\n\n    \"Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments; and\n    let not the flower of the time pass by us.\n\n    \"Let us crown ourselves with roses before they be withered;\n    let no meadow escape our riot.\n\n    \"Let none of us go without his part in luxury: let us everywhere\n    leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this\n    our lot.\"\n\nAlthough the book was accepted as canonical by generations of Hebrew\nteachers and was quoted as such by men like Gamaliel, there was always a\nstrong orthodox party among the Jews opposed to its teachings and\napprehensive of its influence;[140] nor was it until the year 118 A.D.\nthat the protracted dispute on the subject was at last definitely settled\nat the Synod which admitted Koheleth into the Canon. It was natural\nenough that Hebrew theologians should have hesitated to stamp with the\nseal of orthodoxy a book which the poet Heine calls the Canticles of\nScepticism and in which every unbiassed reader will recognise a powerful\nsolvent of the bases of theism; and the only surprising thing about their\nattitude is that they should have ever allowed themselves to be persuaded\nto abandon it.\n\nFor Koheleth's pessimistic theory, which has its roots in Secularism, is\nutterly incompatible with the spirit of Judaism, whichever of its\nhistorical phases we may select for comparison. It is grounded upon the\nrejection of the Messianic expectations and absolute disbelief in the\nsolemn promises of Jahveh Himself. Koheleth cherishes no hope for the\nindividual, his nation, or the human race. The thing that hath been is\nthe same that shall be, and what befell is the same that shall come to\npass, and there is no new thing under the sun....[141] \"I surveyed all\nthe works that are wrought under the sun, and behold all was vanity and\nthe grasping of wind.\"[142] Persians had succeeded Chaldeans; Cyrus, the\nAnointed of Jahveh, had come and gone; Greeks had wrested the hegemony of\nthe East from Persians, but no change had brought surcease of sorrow to\nthe Jews. They were even worse off now than ever before. Jahveh, like\nBaal of old, was become deaf to His worshippers, many of whom turned away\nfrom Him in despair, exclaiming, \"It is vain to serve God, and what\nprofit is it that we have kept His ordinance?\"[143] Koheleth, like Job,\nnever once mentions Jahveh's name, but always alludes to the Eternal\nWill, which alone is real and unknowable, under the colourless name of\nElohim. To say that he believed in a personal God in any sense in which a\npersonal God is essential to a revealed religion, is to misunderstand\nideas or to play with words.[144] And Koheleth was a type of a class.\nLiterary men of his day having mockingly asked for the name of the\nCreator,[145] Koheleth answers that He is inaccessible to men, and that\nprayer to Him is fruitless.[146] The Jewish aristocracy of his day,\ndesirous of embodying these views in a practical form, sought to abolish\nonce for all the national religion, as a body of belief and practices\nthat had been weighed in the balances and found wanting; while the party\nthat still remained faithful to the law was composed mainly of\nnarrow-minded fanatics, whose wild speculations, long-winded prayers and\nfrequent vows, Koheleth considers deserving objects of derision. He\nhimself held aloof from either camp. He took his stand outside the circle\nof both, surveying life from the angle of vision of the philosophical\ncitizen of the world. But it would be idle to deny that he had far more\nin common with the \"impious\" than with the orthodox.\n\nThus he scornfully rejects the old doctrine of retribution, and he is\nnever tired of affirming premisses from which the obvious and indeed only\nconclusion is that the popular conception of a deity who spontaneously\ncreated the universe and vigilantly watches over the Hebrew nation, is\nerroneous, incredible, inconceivable. The Jahveh of olden times, with His\ngrand human passions and petty Jewish prejudices, he simply ignores. He\nnaturally rejects the immortality of the soul--a tenet or theory which\nwas then for the first time beginning to gain ground and to be relied\nupon as the only means of ultimately righting the wrongs of existence.\nThe fact is that he had no belief in a soul as we understand it. Modern\ntheology regards the indestructible part of man as essentially\nintelligent, while admitting the fact that intellect is indissolubly\nassociated with the brain, partaking of its vicissitudes during life and\nvanishing with it apparently for ever at death. Job, Koheleth, and many\nother writers of the Old Testament hold that if anything of the man\npersists after the death of the individual, it is unconscious. \"The\nliving know at least that they shall die, whereas the dead know not\nanything at all.\"[147] In a word, no other philosopher, poet, or\nproverb-writer of the Old Testament is less orthodox in his beliefs or\nless Jewish in his sentiments--and Agur alone is more aggressive in his\nscepticism--than Koheleth.\n\nMuch has been written about the sources from which this writer may and\neven must have drawn his peculiar mixture of pessimism and\n\"Epicureanism,\" and considerable stress has been laid upon the profound\ninfluence which Greek culture is supposed to have exerted upon Jewish\nthinkers towards the second century B.C., when the moral atmosphere was\nchoked with \"the baleful dust of systems and of creeds.\" The\n\"Epicureanism\" of the man who said: \"Better is sorrow than laughter,\"\n\"the heart of the wise is in the mourning house,\"[148] hardly needs the\nhypothesis of a Greek origin to explain it. My own view of the matter,\nwhich I put forward with all due diffidence, differs considerably from\nthose which have been heretofore expressed on the subject. I cannot\ndivest myself of the notion that Koheleth was acquainted, and to some\nextent imbued, with the doctrines of Gautama Buddha, which must have been\npretty widely diffused in the civilised world towards the year 205 B.C.,\nwhen the present treatise was most probably composed.[149]\n\nBuddhism, the only one of the world-religions which, springing from an\nabstruse system of metaphysics, brought forth such practical fruits as\ntruthfulness, honesty, loving-kindness and universal pity, spread with\nextraordinary rapidity not only throughout the Indian continent but over\nthe entire civilised world. Its apostles[150] visited foreign countries,\ntouching and converting by their example the hearts and minds of those\nwho were incapable of weighing their arguments, or unwilling to listen to\ntheir exhortations. They introduced a mild, tolerant, humane spirit\nwhithersoever they went, preaching entire equality, practising perfect\ntoleration, founding houses for meditation, erecting hospitals and\ndispensaries for sick men and beasts, cultivating useful plants and\ntrees, gently suppressing cruelty to animals under any pretext,[151] and\ngenerally sowing seeds of sympathy and brotherly love of which history\nhas noticed and described but the final fruits. From the earliest\nrecorded period Indian culture manifested a natural tendency to expand,\nwhich was intensified at various times by the comparatively low ebb of\ncivilisation in the adjoining countries. One can readily conceive,\ntherefore, the effects of the strenuous and persevering efforts of one of\nthe most powerful Indian monarchs, A\u00e7oka Piyadassi,[152] king of Magadha,\nto propagate that aspect of his country's civilisation which is\nindissolubly bound up with the doctrines of the Buddha.\n\nA\u00e7oka, grandson of the great king Tshandragupta, was the first monarch\nwho openly accepted the tenets and conscientiously practised the precepts\nof the profoundest religious teacher ever born of woman; and no more\neloquent testimony could well be offered to the sincerity of the royal\nconvert than the well-nigh miraculous self-restraint with which he\nforebore to cajole or coerce those of his subjects whom his arguments\nfailed to convince. Satisfied with the progress of the new religion in\nhis native place, he despatched his son, Mahindo, to introduce it into\nCeylon; and so successful were the young prince's missionary efforts that\nthat island became and remains the chief seat of Buddhism to this day.\nA\u00e7oka next turned his attention to foreign countries, in which traders,\ntravellers, emigrants and others had already sparsely sown the seeds of\nthe new faith, and making political power and prestige subservient to\nzeal for truth and pity for suffering humanity, he induced his allies and\ntheir vassals to purchase his friendship by seconding his endeavours to\ninculcate the philosophic doctrines and engraft the humane practices of\nBuddhism on their respective subjects. The results he obtained are\nrecorded in his famous inscriptions composed in various Indian dialects\nand engraven upon rocks all over the continent, from Cabul in the West to\nOrissa in the East; and among the monarchs whom he there enumerates as\nhaving co-operated with him in his apostolic labours, are Antiochus,[153]\nTuramaya,[154] Alexander, Magas[155] and Antigenes;[156] into whose\nhospitable dominions he despatched zealous Buddhist missionaries,\nempowered to found monasteries, to open dispensaries and hospitals, at\nhis expense, and to preach the saving word to all who cared to hear.\n\nThe following literal translation of one of A\u00e7oka's inscriptions[157]\nwill help to convey an idea of the nature of his activity as the royal\napostle of Buddhism, the Constantine of India: \"All over the realms of\nthe god-favoured king, Priyadarsin, and (the realms of those) who (are)\nhis neighbours, such as the Codas, Pandyas, the Prince of the\nS\u00e2tiyas,[158] the Prince of the Keralas, Tamraparn\u00ee, the King of the\nJavanas, Antiochus, and (among the) others who (are) vassals of the said\nKing Antiochus, everywhere the god-beloved, king, Priyadarsin, caused two\nkinds of hospitals to be erected: hospitals for men and likewise\nhospitals for animals.[159] Wherever there were no herbs beneficial to\nmen or animals, he everywhere gave orders that they should be procured or\nplanted. In like manner, where there were no health-giving roots and\nfruits, he everywhere commanded that they should be procured or planted.\nAnd on the highways he had trees put down and wells dug for the behoof of\nmen and beasts.\"[160]\n\nHistory confirms A\u00e7oka's testimony and declares him to have been no less\nsuccessful in sowing the seeds of medicinal plants than those of the\n\"saving doctrine.\" Buddhism enrolled numerous converts and zealous\napostles all over the civilised world, and in Ceylon, Egypt, Bactria, and\nPersia, the yellow flag floated aloft from the roofs of the monasteries\nof _Bhikshus_.[161] But its influence, in other ways equally\npowerful while considerably more subtle, has oftentimes escaped the\nvigilance of the historian. None of the great religions of ancient or\nmodern times succeeded in escaping its contact, or failed to be improved\nby its spirit. In the second century B.C. there were flourishing Buddhist\ncommunities in inhospitable Bactria, where they maintained a firm footing\nfor nearly a thousand years. A Greek,[162] who wrote about the year 80\nB.C., and a Chinese pilgrim,[163] who passed through the land in the\nbeginning of the seventh century A.D., allude to them as important\nelements of the population of the country in their respective ages, and\nthe Buddhist monastery founded in Balkh, the capital of Bactria, in the\nsecond century B.C., was become a famous pilgrimage in the days of Hiuen\nThsang. The Zoroastrian priests of Er\u00e2n hated and feared the followers of\nthe strange creed while silently adopting and unconsciously propagating\nmany of its institutions. Several of the Eranian kings incurred the\ncensure involved in the nickname of \"idolaters\" in consequence of the\nfavour they extended to the preachers of Nirvana.[164] No religion of\nantiquity was less favourable to a life of passive contemplation than\nZoroastrianism, which defined life as a continuous struggle, and\nconsidered virtue as a successful battle with the powers of darkness; and\nyet little by little Zoroastrian monasteries sprang up by the side of the\nFire Temples, and offered a quiet refuge from the turmoil of the world to\nthe pious worshippers of Ahura Mazda.[165]\n\nSo saturated were the Eranian populations with the spirit of\nBuddha--antagonistic though it was to their own--that the two great\nEranian sects,[166] one of which bade fair to become a universal\nreligion,[167] were little else than adaptations of the creed of the\nBuddha to the needs of a different time and people. M\u00e2n\u00ee, for instance,\nprohibited marriage, which was one of the principal duties and holiest\nacts of a true servant of Ahura Mazda; forbade the killing of animals\nwhich, in the case of ants, serpents, gnats, &c., was enjoined by the\npriests of Zoroaster, and discouraged agriculture lest plants should be\ndestroyed in the process. And the two classes of perfect and imperfect\ndisciples in M\u00e2n\u00ee's community were copied from those of Buddhism, which\ndivides all believers into two categories: those who sincerely and\nfervently seek to attain to Nirvana and are termed Bhikshus, and the\nUpasakas or laymen who, while holding on to life, practise such virtues\nas are compatible with this unholy desire.\n\nThe Jewish religion, in certain of its phases, reveals in like manner\nunmistakable traces of the influence of the religion of the Buddha. To\ntake but one instance, the Essenians in Judaea, near the Dead Sea and the\nTherapeutes in Egypt, practised continence, eschewed all bloody\nsacrifices, encouraged celibacy, and extreme abstemiousness in eating and\ndrinking. They formed themselves into communities, and lived, after the\nmanner of Buddhist Bhikshus, in monasteries. During the life of Jesus,\nthe Essenians, who lived mostly in cloistered retirement on the shores of\nthe Dead Sea, played no historic role; but after the destruction of\nJerusalem, they embraced Christianity in a body, and originated the\nascetic movement of the Ebionites, which did not finally subside until it\nhad deposited the germs of monasticism in the Church of Christ.\n\nKoheleth, who lived either in Jerusalem or in Alexandria--more probably\nin the latter city--about the year 205 B.C., had exceptional\nopportunities for becoming acquainted with the tenets and precepts of the\nreligion of Buddha. He was evidently a man of an inquiring mind, with a\npronounced taste for philosophical speculation; and the social and\npolitical conditions of his day were such that a person even of a very\nincurious disposition would be likely to be brought face to face with the\nsensational doctrine which was responsible for such amazing innovations\nas hospitals for men and for animals. Alexandria, the museum and library\nof which had already been founded, was one of the principal strongholds\nof non-Indian Buddhists. It is mentioned in the Milindapanho, a Pali work\nwhich deals with events that took place in the second century B.C.;[168]\nit is expressly included by A\u00e7oka in the list of cities into which he\nintroduced a knowledge of the \"path of duty,\" and so devoted were its\ninhabitants to the creed of Sakhya Mouni,[169] that thirty years after\nAugustine had died at Hippo, thirty thousand Bhikshus set out from\nAlasadda[170] to annex new countries to the realm of truth.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[140] _Cf._ the epilogue (xii. 9-14), for example, which is one of the\n    most timid and shuffling apologies ever penned.\n\n[141] i. 9.\n\n[142] i. 14.\n\n[143] Malachi iii. 14.\n\n[144] Professor Cheyne remarks: \"To me, Koheleth is not a theist in any\n    vital sense in his philosophic meditations.\"--\"Job and Solomon,\"\n    p. 250.\n\n[145] _Cf._ Proverbs xxx. 4.\n\n[146] iii. 14, v. 2.\n\n[147] Eccles. ix. 5.\n\n[148] vii. 3, 4.\n\n[149] The view of several of the most authoritative scholars--in which I\n    entirely concur--is that Koheleth was written in Alexandria during\n    the reign of Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes), who came to the throne as a boy\n    under the guardianship of tutors and was alluded to in the verse:\n    \"Woe, land, to thee whose king is a child.\"\n\n[150] Some of them were foreigners resident in India who, after their\n    conversion, preached the new doctrine to their fellow-countrymen.\n    Thus, one of the earliest and most successful missionaries was a\n    Greek, whose Indian name was Dharmarakshita.\n\n[151] Plants, too, were included in their care and profited by their\n    protection.\n\n[152] A\u00e7oka is a Sanskrit word, which means \"free from care;\" and\n    Piyadassi a dialectic form of the Sanskrit word Priyadarsin, which\n    means lovable, amiable. It was applied as an epithet to King A\u00e7oka,\n    who reigned from 259-222 B.C.\n\n[153] Antiochus II., called Theos, who was poisoned by his divorced wife\n    Laodike in 247 B.C. I am aware that some scholars identify the\n    Antiochus here mentioned with Antiochus the Great. Although both\n    views make equally for my contention, I fail to see how A\u00e7oka,\n    who died in all probability in the year 222 B.C., could have\n    carried on important negotiations with Antiochus the Great, who\n    came to the throne of Syria two years later.\n\n[154] Ptolemy of Egypt, probably Ptolemy Philadelphos, who founded the\n    Museum and Library of Alexandria, and his successor Ptolemy\n    Euergetes (247-221 B.C.).\n\n[155] Magas, king of Cyrene.\n\n[156] The identity of this monarch is uncertain.\n\n[157] The second Edict of Girnar, Khalsi version.\n\n[158] A South Indian people.\n\n[159] Usually a dispensary was opened for the distribution of simples,\n    and a hospital hard by for those who could not move about. The\n    Buddhists were almost as anxious to relieve the physical pain and\n    illness of animals as of human beings.\n\n[160] _Cf._ B\u00fchler, \"Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenl\u00e4ndischen\n    Gesellschaft,\" Band xxxvii. folg. p. 98.\n\n[161] The monks or real disciples of Buddha who endeavour to attain\n    Nibbana or Nirvana. The bulk of the population contents itself with\n    almsgiving and the practice of elementary morality, the reward for\n    which will be a less unhappy existence after death; but not Nirvana,\n    to which only the perfect can hope to attain.\n\n[162] Alexander Polyhistor, quoted by Cyrillus (_contra Julianum_);\n    _cf._ also Clemens Alexandrinus, _Stromata I._, p. 339.\n\n[163] Hiuen Thsang.\n\n[164] Their names and deeds are preserved in the Persian epic known as\n    the Book of Kings (Firdoosi, Shah-Nameh, _cf_. 1033, v. 4, 1160,\n    v. 2, &c.).\n\n[165] Ormuzd. An instructive instance of the way in which foreign\n    institutions become nationalised in Bactria is afforded by the\n    Buddhist monastery in Balkh, which was at first known by its\n    Indian name, _nava vih\u00e2ra_, a term that was gradually changed to\n    _naubehar,_ which in Persian means \"new spring.\"\n\n[166] M\u00e2n\u00ee and Mazdak.\n\n[167] The religion of M\u00e2n\u00ee.\n\n[168] Ed. Trenckner, p. 327.\n\n[169] Buddha.\n\n[170] Alexandria.\n\n\n\n\nAGUR, THE AGNOSTIC\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAGUR, SON OF YAKEH\n\nEmbedded in the collection of the Book of Proverbs[171] is an interesting\nfragment of the philosophy of a certain \"Agur, son of Yakeh, the poet,\"\nwhich for scathing criticism of the theology of his day and sweeping\nscepticism as to every form of revealed religion, is unmatched by the\nbitterest irony of Job and the most dogmatic agnosticism of Koheleth.\nUnfortunately it is no more than a mere fragment, the verses of which are\nthoughtfully separated from each other by strictures, protests, and\nrefutations of the baldest and most orthodox kind. Indeed, it is in all\nprobability precisely to the presence of the infallible antidote that we\nowe the preservation of the deadly poison; and if we may found a\nconjecture as to the character of the whole work on a comparison of the\nfragments with what we know generally of the sceptical schools of\nphilosophy prevalent among the Jews of post-Exilian days, we shall feel\ndisposed to hold the seven strophes preserved in our Bibles as that\nportion of the poem which the compiler considered to be the most innocent\nbecause the least startling and revolutionary.\n\nTo the thinking of the critics of former times the Proverbs displayed\nunmistakable traces of the unique and highly finished workmanship of the\ngreat and wise king Solomon. At the present day no serious student of the\nBible, be he Christian or Rationalist, would raise his voice on behalf of\nthis Jewish tradition which, running counter to well-established facts,\nis devoid even of the doubtful recommendation of moderate antiquity. A\nmore accurate knowledge of history and a more thorough study of philology\nhave long since made it manifest to all who can lay claim to either, that\nhowever weighty may have been Solomon's titles to immortality, they\nincluded neither depth of philosophic thought nor finish of literary\nachievement. And an average supply of plain common-sense enables us to\nsee that even had that extraordinary monarch been a profound thinker or a\nclassic writer, he would hardly have treated future events as\naccomplished facts without being endowed with further gifts and marked by\ngraver defects which would involve a curious combination of prophecy and\nfolly.\n\nThe Proverbs themselves, when properly interrogated, tell a good deal of\ntheir own story; sacred and profane history supply the rest. In their\npresent form they were collected and edited by the author of the first\nsix verses of the first chapter, who drew his materials from different\nsources. The first and most important of these was the so-called \"Praise\nof Wisdom\" which, until a comparatively recent period, was erroneously\nheld to be a rounded, homogeneous poem. Professor Bickell conclusively\nshowed that it consists of ten different songs composed in the same metre\nas the Poem of Job, each chapter being coextensive with one song, except\nthe first chapter, which contains two.[172] The fifth collection,\ncontaining the proverbs copied \"by the men of Hezekiah,\" is characterised\nby the strong national spirit of the writers. Most of the others make\nfrequent mention of God, give a prominent place to religion, and adapt\nthemselves for use as texts for sermons; these, on the contrary, never\nonce mention His name, reflect religion as it was--viz., as only one of\nthe many sides of national existence, and deal mainly with the concrete\nproblems of the everyday life of the struggling people. The other sayings\nmay be aptly described as the pious maxims of a sect; these as the\nthoughts of a nation. The seventh part of the Book of Proverbs contains\nthe remarkable sayings of Agur,[173] which were quite as frequently\nmisunderstood by the Jews of old as by Christians of more recent times,\nthe former heightening the impiety of the author and the latter\ngenerously identifying him with the pious and fanatical writer to whose\nwell-meant refutations and protests we owe the preservation of this\ninteresting fragment of ancient Hebrew agnosticism.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[171] The Book of Proverbs begins with ten songs on wisdom, which\n    constitute the first part of the work. The second part is made up\n    of distichs, each one of which, complete in itself, embodies a\n    proverbial saying (x. i-xxii. 16). The third section is composed of\n    the \"sayings of the wise men,\" which are enshrined in tetrastichs or\n    strophes of four lines, among which we find an occasional\n    interpolation by the editor, recognisable by the paternal tone, the\n    words \"My son,\" and the substitution of distichs for tetrastichs.\n    Then comes the appendix containing other proverbial dicta (chap.\n    xxiv. 23-34. chap. vi. 9-19, chap. xxv. 2-10), followed by the\n    proverbs \"of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah copied out\"\n    (xxv. 11-xxvii. 22), and wound up with a little poem in praise of\n    rural economy. Chaps. xxviii. and xxix. constitute another collection\n    of proverbs of a more strictly religious character, and then come the\n    sayings of Agur, written in strophes of six lines, the rules for a\n    king and the praise of a good housewife.\n\n[172] Prov. i. 7-19 and i. 20-33.\n\n[173] Chap. xxx.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFORM AND CONTENTS OF THE SAYINGS OF AGUR\n\nIt is needless to discuss the condition and the contents of the entire\nBook of Proverbs, seeing that each one of its component parts has an\nindependent, if somewhat obscure, history of its own. The final compiler\nand editor, to whom we are indebted for the collection in its present\nform, undoubtedly found the sweeping scepticism of the poet Agur and the\npious protestations of his anonymous adversary, the thesis and the\nantithesis, inextricably interwoven in the section now known as the\nthirtieth chapter. He himself apparently identified the two\nantagonists--the scoffing doubter and the believing Jew; most modern\ntheologians have cheerfully followed his example. The fact would seem to\nbe that the orthodox member of the Jewish community, who thus\nemphatically objected to aggressive agnosticism, was a man who strictly\nobserved the \"Mosaic\" Law, and sympathised with the people in their\nhatred of their heathen masters and their hopes of speedy deliverance by\nthe Messiah; in a word, an individual of the party which later on played\nan important role in Palestine under the name of the Pharisees.\nPossessing a copy of Agur's popular philosophical treatise, this zealous\nchampion undertook to refute the theory before he had ascertained the\ndrift of the sayings in which it was enshrined, or grasped their primary\nmeaning. Thus, in one passage[174] he fancies that the taunts which Agur\nlevelled against omniscient theologians who are well up in the history of\neverything that is done or left undone in heaven, while amazingly\nignorant of the ascertainable facts of earthly science, are really aimed\nat God; and he seeks to parry the attack accordingly. His numerous and\namusing errors are such as characterise the fanaticism that would refute\na theory before hearing it unfolded, not those which accompany and betray\npious imbecility. Hence it would be unfair to tax him with the utter\nincoherency of the prayer which our Bibles make him offer up, when\nwarding off the supposed attack upon God: (8) \"Feed me with food\nconvenient for me, (9) Lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the\nLord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God _in\nvain_.\" The mistake is the result of the erroneous punctuation of the\nHebrew words,[175] which may be literally rendered into English as\nfollows:\n\n  \"Feed me with food suitable for me,\n  Lest I be sated and deny thee,\n  And say, Who is the Lord?\n  Or lest I be poor and yield to seduction,\n  And sin against the name of my God.'\n\nIn the ensuing verse the controversialist, full of his own Pharisaic[176]\nviews of politics, and fancying he detects in certain of Agur's\nwords,[177] an apology for the heathen rulers and contempt for the\northodox people of God, inveighs against the traitor who would denounce\nhis fellow-subjects to their common master,[178] and holds him up to\nuniversal odium.\n\nOne or two other false constructions put upon Agur's sayings by the\nchampion of the \"Law of Jahveh,\" are likewise worthy of attention. In the\nsecond sentence, which can be traced back to the proverbial philosophy of\nthe Hindoos, Agur, enumerating the four things that are never satisfied,\nlays special stress upon two which are, so to say, the beginning and end\nof all things, the alpha and omega of human philosophy--viz., the grave\nand the womb;[179] the latter the bait as well as the portal of life, the\nformer the bugbear and the goal of all things living. The idea, no less\nthan the form, is manifestly Indian. Birth and death constitute the axis\nof existence; the womb is the symbol of the allurement that tempts men to\nforget their sorrows, to keep the Juggernaut wheel revolving and to\nsupply it with fresh victims to be mangled and crushed into the grave.\nThe lure and the deterrent--love of sensuous pleasure and fear of\ndissolution--are as deceitful as all the other causes of pain and\npleasure in this world of appearance. Schopenhauer puts it tersely thus:\n\"As we are decoyed into life by the utterly illusory impulse to\nvoluptuousness, even so are we held fast therein by the fear of death,\nwhich is certainly illusory in an equal degree. Both have their immediate\nsource in the Will, which in itself is unconscious.\"[180]\n\nThe only reward which life offers to those who crave it, is suffering and\ndeath. The desire of life--the Indian _tanha_ or thirst of\nexistence--Agur represents in the form of the beautiful but terrible\nGhoul of the desert who has two daughters: birth and death. By means of\nher fascinating charms she entices the wanderer to her arms, but instead\nof satiating his soul with the promised joys, she ruthlessly flings him\nto her two daughters who tear him to pieces and devour him on the spot.\nDesire is the source of life which in turn is the taproot of all evil and\npain; insight into this truth--the knowledge or wisdom lauded by Job and\nprized by Koheleth--affords the only means of breaking the unholy spell,\nand escaping from the magic circle.\n\nThis ingenious and profound philosophical image was wholly misunderstood\nby Agur's orthodox adversary, who founds upon the deprecatory allusion to\nthe womb a general accusation of lack of reverence for maternity and a\nspecific charge of disrespect for Agur's own mother.[181]\n\nAgur's third saying has been likewise sadly misconstrued by the ancient\nPharisaic controversialist and by his faithful modern successors. He\nenumerates therein four things which to him seem wholly incomprehensible,\nthe fourth and last being the darkest mystery of all: the flying of an\neagle in the air, the movement of a serpent--which is devoid of special\norgans of locomotion--along a rock, the sailing of a ship on the ocean,\nand \"the way of a man with a maid.\"[182] It is very hard to believe what\nis nevertheless an undeniable fact, that the bulk of serious commentators\nclassify these as the trackless things, whereby, strangely enough, they\nunderstand the last of the four in a moral instead of a metaphysical\nsense. The error is an old one: it was on the strength of this arbitrary\nand vulgar interpretation that Agur was accused by his Jewish antagonist\nof a criminal lack of filial piety towards his own father,[183] and\nthreatened with condign punishment, to be inflicted by the eagles that\nfly so wonderfully in the air;[184] while another scribe, unaware that\nthe mystery of generation could be chosen as the text for a treatise on\nmetaphysics, and firmly convinced that the philosopher was condemning\nunhallowed relations between the sexes, penned a gloss to make things\nsufficiently clear which was afterwards removed from the margin to the\ntext where it now figures as the twentieth verse.\n\nIn truth, Agur gives utterance to a natural sentiment of awe and wonder\nat the greatest and darkest of all mysteries whose roots lie buried in\nthe depths of the two worlds we conceive of. What could be more\nawe-inspiring than the instantaneous metamorphosis of pure immaterial\nwill into concrete flesh and blood, throbbing with life hastening to\ndecay, the incarnation in the sphere of appearances of an act of the one\nbeing which is not an appearance only, but the denizen of the world of\nreality? Will is primary, real, enduring; intellect secondary,\naccidental, fleeting; the one, abiding for ever, is identical in all\nthings; the latter varies in different beings, nay in the same\nindividuals at various times, and perishes with the brain, of which it is\na function. Will is devoid of intellect, as intellect is deprived of\nvelleity. We know will through our inner consciousness which has to do\nexclusively with it and its manifold manifestations; all other\nthings--the world of appearances--we know through what may be termed our\nouter consciousness.\n\nNow in our self-consciousness we apprehend the fierce, blind, headstrong\nsexual impulse as the most powerful motion of concentrated will. The act\nis marked by the spontaneity, impetuosity, and lack of reflection which\ncharacterises the agent, will being by nature unenlightened and\nunconditioned. And yet that which in our inner consciousness is a blind,\nvehement impulse, appears in our outer consciousness in the form of the\nmost complex living organism we know. Generation, then, is manifestly the\npoint at which the real and the seeming intersect each other.\n\nBirth and death--the inevitable lot of each and every one--would seem to\naffect the individual only, the race living on without change or decay.\nThis, however, is but the appearance. In reality the individual and the\nrace are one. The blind striving to live, the will that craves existence\nat all costs, is absolutely the same in both, as complete in the former\nas in the latter, and the perpetuity of the race is, so to say, but the\nsymbol of the indestructibility of the individual--_i.e._, of will.\n\nNow this all-important fact is exemplified quite as clearly by the\nphenomenon of generation as by the process of decay and death. In both we\nbehold the opposition between the appearance and the essence of the\nbeing, between the world as it exists in our intellect as representation,\nand the world as it really is, as will. The act of generation is known to\nus through two different media: that of the inner consciousness which is\ntaken up with our will and all its movements, and that of our outer\nconsciousness which has to do with impressions received through the\nsenses. Seen through the former medium, the act is the most complete and\nimmediate satisfaction of the will--sensual lust; viewed in the light\nsupplied by the outer consciousness, it appears as the woof of the most\nintricate texture, the basis of the most complex of living organisms.\nFrom this angle of vision, the result is a work of amazing skill,\ndesigned with the greatest ingenuity and forethought, and carried out\nwith patient industry and scrupulous care; from that point of view it is\nthe direct outcome of an act which is the negation of plan, forethought,\nskill, and ingenuity, a blind unreasoning impulse. This contrast or\nrather opposition between the seeming and the real, this new view of\nbirth and death, this sudden flash of light athwart the impenetrable\ndarkness, is what provokes the wonder of this scoffing sceptic.[185]\n\nIn the fourth saying, Agur mentions, among the persons whom the earth\ncannot endure, a low-bred fellow who is set to rule over others, and a\nfool when he acquires a competency and becomes independent. The anonymous\nPharisee, who keeps a vigilant watch for doctrinal slips and political\nbackslidings and frequently finds them where they are not, descries in\nthe first of the four unbearable things a proof that Agur was a Sadducee\nand an aristocrat who would rather obey a monarch who is \"every inch a\nking\"--even though he be a heathen--than a native clodhopper who should\nclimb up to the throne on the backs of a poor deluded people and grind\nthem down in the sacred name of liberty and independence. Agur is\ntherefore duly reprimanded and classed with the shameless oppressors of\nthe multitude and the devourers of the substance of the poor,[186] as the\nSadducees generally were by their Pharisaic opponents.\n\nThe sentence that follows, enumerating the things \"which are little upon\nthe earth,[187] is not from the pen of our philosopher, but a harmless\npassage inserted subsequently as a _pendant_ to the four things\nwhich \"are comely in going.\" The main considerations that point to this\nconclusion and warrant us in ascribing the verses to a different author\nare these: all the other \"numerical sayings\" which are admittedly the\nwork of Agur, contain first of all the number three and in the parallel\nverse four,[188] whereas this sentence speaks of four only. Again, all\nAgur's proverbs are in the form of strophes of six lines each; but this\npassage consists of five distichs. Lastly, it is a manifest digression,\nleads nowhither, and, what is still more important, has no point, as all\nAgur's sayings have.[189]\n\nThe final sentence of this interesting fragment needs no elaborate\nexplanation: it contains the pith of Agur's practical philosophy in the\nform of an exhortation to renounce honour, glory, the esteem of men, &c.,\nif we possess legitimate claims to such, and still more if we have none;\nthe acquisition of peace and quiet is cheap at the price of obscurity;\nfreedom from care and worry and from the evils they bring in their train,\nbeing of infinitely greater value than the chance and even the certainty\nof so-called \"positive\" enjoyments.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[174] Prov. xxx. 4.\n\n[175] The Hebrew text consists of vowelless words. The correct vowels\n    must be ascertained before the meaning of a word or sentence can\n    be definitely established. The vowel points of our Hebrew Bibles\n    are not older than the seventh century A.D., and are frequently\n    erroneous. In the present case the word stealing does not occur\n    in the text, but only the being stolen--viz., seduction, temptation.\n\n[176] I employ the word in its natural, not in its conventional, sense.\n\n[177] Prov. xxx. 21, 22.\n\n[178] _Ibid_ xxx. 10.\n\n[179] The word \"barren\" added in our Bibles (Hebrew _'o\u00e7zer_,\n    \"barrenness\") is not only excluded by the metre, but is also\n    wanting in the Septuagint version--conclusive proofs that it is a\n    later interpolation.\n\n[180] _Cf_. Schopenhauer, \"Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung,\" herausg.\n    v. E. Grisebach, ii. p. 585. Grisebach's is the only correct edition\n    of Schopenhauer's works.\n\n[181] Prov. xxx. 11.\n\n[182] _Ib_. xxx. 18, 19.\n\n[183] _Ib_. xxx. 11.\n\n[184] _Ib_. xxx. 17.\n\n[185] _Cf_. Schopenhauer, \"Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung,\" vol. ii.\n    p. 583 fol.; also vol. i. pp. 424-426; and Bickell, \"Wiener\n    Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Kunde des Morgenlandes,\" 1891.\n\n[186] Prov. xxx. 19.\n\n[187] _Ib_. xxx. 24-28.\n\n[188] For example, Prov. xxx. 15:\n\n      \"There are three things that are never satisfied,\n      Yea, four things say not, 'It is enough!'\"\n\n[189] _Cf_. Bickell, \"Wiener Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Kunde des\n    Morgenlandes,\" 1891.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDATE OF COMPOSITION\n\nThe sayings of Agur cannot possibly be assigned to a date later than the\nclose of third century B.C. The ground for this statement is contained in\nthe circumstance that Jesus Sirach found the Book of Proverbs in\nexistence, with all its component parts and in its present shape, about\nthe year 200 B.C. He mentions a collection of proverbial sayings when\nalluding to Solomon and his proverbs. Jesus Sirach's canon--if we can\napply this technical term to the series of scriptures in vogue in his\nday--comprised the books contained in our Bibles from Genesis to Kings,\nfurther Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, the twelve Minor Prophets, Psalms,\nProverbs, and Job. Moreover, it is no longer open to doubt that the\narrangement of the various parts of the Book of Proverbs which he read\nwas identical with that of ours. For the last part of this Book contains\nan alphabetical poem in praise of a good housewife,[190] and Jesus Sirach\nconcluded his own work with a similar poem upon wisdom, in which he\nimitated this alphabetical order. It is obvious, therefore, that Proverbs\nin their present form could not have been compiled later than the date of\nJesus Sirach's work (about 200 B.C.). This conclusion is borne out by the\ncircumstance that the final editor of Proverbs in his introduction,[191]\nmentions the Words of the Wise, which occur in chapters xxii. 17-xxiv.,\nand \"their dark sayings,\" or riddles, by which he obviously means the\nsentences of Agur. For Proverbs and for Agur's fragment, therefore, the\nlatest date is the beginning of the second century B.C. Chapter xxx., in\nwhich, on the one hand, Agur develops very advanced philosophical views,\nsome of them of Indian origin, and, on the other, his anonymous\nantagonist breathes the narrow, fanatic spirit so thoroughly\ncharacteristic of the later \"Mosaic\" Law, is among the very latest\nportions of Proverbs. For it is in the highest degree probable that the\nsayings of Agur are of a much later date even than the promulgation of\nthe Priests' Code;[192] and the circumstance that the anonymous stickler\nfor strict orthodoxy already begins to accentuate the political and\nreligious opposition between the two great parties known as Pharisees and\nSadducees, as well as other grounds of a different order, disposes me to\nassign the fragment of Agur to the third century B.C. This conclusion\nwould be borne out by the influence upon Agur's scepticism of\ncomparatively recent foreign speculation. Some of his sayings have an\nunmistakable Indian ring about them. A few are even directly traceable to\nthe philosophical sentences of the Hindoos. The enumeration of the four\ninsatiable things, for instance, is but a slight modification of the\nIndian proverb in the Hitopade\u00e7a which runs: \"Fire is not satiated with\nfuel; nor the sea with streams; nor death with all beings; nor a\nfair-eyed woman with men.\"[193] Still more striking and suggestive is the\ncorrespondence between the desire of life, personified in Agur's fragment\nby the beautiful Ghoul, and the thirst of existence denoted by the Buddha\nand his countrymen as _tanha_--the root of all evil and suffering.\n\"Through thirst for existence (_tanha_),\" the Buddha is reported to\nhave said to his disciples, \"arises a craving for life; through this,\nbeing; through being, birth; through birth are produced age and death,\ncare and misery, suffering, wretchedness and despair. Such is the origin\nof the world.... By means of the total annihilation of this thirst for\nexistence (_tanha_) the destruction of the craving for life is\ncompassed; through the destruction of the craving for life, the uprooting\nof being is effected; through the uprooting of being, the annihilation of\nbirth is brought about; by means of the annihilation of birth the\nabolition of age and death, of care and misery, of suffering,\nwretchedness and despair is accomplished. In this wise takes place the\nannihilation of this sum of suffering.\"[194] The same doctrine is laid\ndown by the last accredited of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputto: \"What,\nbrethren, is the source of suffering?\" he is reported to have said. \"It\nis that desire (_tanha_) which leads from new birth to new birth,\nwhich is accompanied by joy and passion, which delights now here, now\nthere; it is the sexual instinct, the impulse towards existence, the\ncraving for development. That, brethren, is what is termed the source of\nsuffering.\"[195]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[190] Prov. xxxi. 10-31.\n\n[191] Prov. i. 6.\n\n[192] 444 B.C.\n\n[193] _Cf_. Hitopade\u00e7a, book ii. fable vi.; ed. Max M\u00fcller, vol. ii.\n    p. 38.\n\n[194] Samyuttaka-Nikayo, vol. ii. chap. xliv. p. 12; _cf_. Neumann\n    \"Buddhistiche Anthologie,\" Leiden, 1892, pp. 161-162.\n\n[195] Majjhima-Nikayo; _cf_. Neumann, _op. sit.,_ p.25.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAGUR'S PHILOSOPHY\n\nOf the three Hebrew thinkers of the Old Testament who ventured to sift\nand weigh the evidence on which the religious beliefs of their\ncontemporaries were based, Agur was probably the most daring and\ndangerous. He appealed directly to the people, and set up a simple\nstandard of criticism which could be effectively employed by all. Hence,\nno doubt, the paucity of the fragments of his writings which have come\ndown to us and the consequent difficulty of constructing therewith a\ncomplete and coherent system of philosophy. To what extent he assented to\nthe theories and approved the practices which constitute the positive\nelements of the Buddha's religion, is open to discussion; but that he was\na confirmed sceptic as regards the fundamental doctrines of Jewish\ntheology, and that his speculations received their impulse and direction\nfrom Indian philosophy, are facts which can no longer be called in\nquestion.\n\nTo the theologians of his day he shows no mercy; for their dogmas of\nretribution, Messianism, &c., he evinces no respect; nay, he denies all\ndivine revelation and strips the deity itself of every vestige of an\nattribute. Proud of their precise and exhaustive knowledge of the\nmysteries of God's nature, the doctors of the Jewish community had drawn\nup comprehensive formulas for all His methods of dealing with mankind,\nand anathematised those who ventured to cast doubts upon their accuracy.\n\n  \"Whatever sceptic could inquire for,\n  For every why they had a wherefore,\"\n\nthe unanswerable tone of which lay necessarily and exclusively in the\nimplicit and tenacious faith of the hearer. Now, faith may be governed by\nconditions widely different from those that regulate scientific\nknowledge, but if its object be something that lies beyond the ken of the\nhuman intellect it must be based either upon a supernatural intuition\naccorded to the individual or upon a divine revelation vouchsafed to all.\nIn the former case it cannot be embodied in a religious dogma; in the\nlatter it cannot--or should not--be accepted without thorough discussion\nand due verification of the alleged historical fact of the divine\nmessage.\n\nThis is the gist of Agur's reasoning against the allwise theologians of\nthe Jewish Church.\n\nThese sapient specialists, whose intellects were nurtured upon the\nhighest and most abstruse speculations and who could readily account for\nall the movements of the Deity with a wealth of detail surpassing that of\na French police _dossier_, were utterly and notoriously ignorant of\nthe rudimentary laws of science which every inquisitive mind might learn\nand every educated man could verify. Now, as truth is one, Agur reasoned,\nhow comes it that the persons who thus lay claim to a thorough knowledge\nof the more difficult, are absolutely ignorant of the more simple?\nWhence, in a word, did they obtain their perfect acquaintance with the\nmysteries of the divine nature and the mechanism of the universe, the\nelementary laws of which are yet unknown to them? Surely not from any\nsource accessible to all; for Agur, possessing equally favourable\nopportunities for observation and quite as keen an interest in the\nsubject, not only failed to make any similar discoveries, but even to\nfind any confirmation of theirs. For this he sarcastically accounts by\nadmitting that he must be considerably more stupid than the common run of\nmankind, in fact, that he is wholly devoid of human understanding--a\nconfession which he evidently expects every reasonable man to repeat\nafter him to those who assert that crass ignorance of fundamental facts\nis an aid to the highest kind of knowledge.\n\n  \"I have worried myself about God, and succeeded not,\n  For I am more stupid than other men,\n  And in me there is no human understanding:\n  Neither have I learned wisdom,\n  So that I might comprehend the science of sacred things.\"\n\nStill he is a very docile disciple, and, having failed to make any\ndiscoveries of his own, would gladly accept those of a qualified\nmaster--of one who endeavours to know before setting out to teach and who\nprefaces his account of the wonders of the unseen world by pointing out\nthe bridge over which he passed thither, from this. But does such a\ngenuine teacher exist?\n\n  \"Who has ascended into heaven and come down again?\n  Who can gather the wind in his fists?\n  Who can bind the waters in a garment?\n  Who can grasp all the ends of the earth?\n  Such an one would I question about God: 'What is his name?\n  And what the name of his sons, if thou knowest it?'\"\n\nAnd if even specialists do not fulfil these conditions, are we not forced\nto conclude that their so-called knowledge is a fraud and its\nsubject-matter unknowable?\n\nAgur's views of right conduct--if we may judge by the general tenour of\nhis fragmentary sayings and by the principle embodied in his sixth and\nlast sentence, in which he rejects as a motive for action \"a high hope\nfor a low heaven\"--are marked by the essential characteristics of true\nmorality. An action performed for the sake of any recompense, human or\ndivine, transitory or eternal, is egotistic by its nature, and therefore\nnot moral; and the difference between the man who, in his unregenerate\ndays, cut his neighbours' throats in order to enjoy their property, and\nafter his conversion gave all his goods to feed the poor, in order to\nenjoy eternal happiness in heaven, is more interesting to the legislator\nthan to the moralist. But, were it otherwise, Agur holds that, even from\na purely practical point of view, all the honours and rewards which\nmankind can bestow upon their greatest benefactor would be too dearly\npurchased by a ruffled temper; in other words, mere freedom from positive\npain is a greater boon than the highest pleasure purchased at the price\nof a little suffering.\n\nAgur's politics gave as much offence to the priests as his theology. Like\nmost original thinkers, he is a believer in the aristocracy of talent,\nand he makes no secret of his preference of a hereditary nobility to\nthose upstarts from the ranks of the people who possess no intellectual\ngifts to recommend them. For the former have at least training and\nheredity to guide them, whereas the latter are devoid even of these\nrecommendations. These views furnished the grounds for the charge of\nSadduceeism preferred against him by his adversary.\n\nTo what extent Indian thought, and in particular the metaphysics and\nethics of Buddhism, influenced Agur's religious speculations, it is\nimpossible to do more than conjecture. Personally I am disposed to think\nthat he was well acquainted and indeed thoroughly imbued with the\nteachings of the Indian reformer. In the third century B.C., as already\npointed out, the spread of the new religion through Bactria, Persia,\nEgypt, and Asia Minor was rapid. Moreover, the turn taken by the\nspeculations of cultured Hebrews of that epoch was precisely such as we\nshould expect to find, if it stood to Buddhistic preaching in the\nrelation of effect to cause. The scepticism of the philosophers of the\nOld Testament, not excepting that of Agur who may aptly be termed the\nHebrew Voltaire, was not wholly destructive. Its sweeping negations in\nthe spheres of metaphysics and theology were amply compensated for--if\none can speak of compensation in such a connection--by the positive,\nhumane, and wise maxims it lays down in the domain of ethics. And the\ncornerstone of the morality of all three--Job, Koheleth, and Agur--would\nseem to be virtually identical with that formulated in the Indian\naphorism:\n\n  \"Alone the doer doth the deed; alone he tastes the fruit it brings;\n  Alone he wanders through life's maze; alone redeems himself from\n                being.\"\n\nBuddhistic influence in the case of Agur, therefore, is all the more\nprobable that it admirably dovetails with all the circumstances of time\nand place known to us, even on the supposition, which I am myself\ninclined to favour, that Agur lived and wrote in Palestine. This\nprobability is greatly enhanced by the striking affinity between the\nBuddhist conception of revealed religions, of professional priests and of\npractical wisdom, and that enshrined in the few verses of Agur which we\npossess. It is raised to a degree akin to certainty by the actual\noccurrence of Indian images, similes, and even concrete aphorisms in the\nshort fragment of seven strophes preserved to us in the Book of Proverbs.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE POEM OF JOB\n\nTRANSLATION OF THE RESTORED TEXT\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPROLOGUE\n\nCHAP. I. A.V.]\n\n1 _There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man\nwas perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil._\n\n2 _And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters._\n\n3 _His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand\ncamels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a\nvery great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of\nthe east._\n\n4 _And his sons went and feasted_ in their _houses, every one his\nday; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with\nthem._\n\n5 _And it was so, when the days of_ their _feasting were gone\nabout, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the\nmorning, and offered burnt offerings_ according _to the number of\nthem all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed\nGod in their hearts. Thus did Job continually._\n\n6\u00b6 _Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves\nbefore the Lord, and Satan came also among them._\n\n7 _And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan\nanswered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth and from\nwalking up and down in it._\n\n8 _And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job,\nthat_ there is _none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright\nman, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?_\n\n9 _Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for\nnought?_\n\n10 _Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and\nabout all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his\nhands, and his substance is increased in the land._\n\n11 _But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he\nwill curse thee to thy face._\n\n12 _And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath_ is _in\nthy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went\nforth from the presence of the Lord._\n\n13\u00b6 _And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating\nand drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:_\n\n14 _And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were\nplowing, and the asses were feeding beside them:_\n\n15 _And the Sabeans fell_ upon them_, and took them away; yea,\nthey have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am\nescaped alone to tell thee._\n\n16 _While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The\nfire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the\nservants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell\nthee._\n\n17 _While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The\nChaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have\ncarried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the\nsword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee._\n\n18 _While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy\nsons and thy daughters_ were _eating and drinking wine in their\neldest brother's house:\n\n19 _And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote\nthe four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they\nare dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee._\n\n20 _Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell\ndown upon the ground and worshipped,_\n\n21 _And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I\nreturn thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be\nthe name of the Lord._\n\n22 _In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly._\n\n\nCHAP. II. A.V.]\n\n1 _Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present\nthemselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present\nhimself before the Lord._\n\n2 _And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan\nanswered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from\nwalking up and down in it._\n\n3 _And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job,\nthat_ there is _none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright\nman, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast\nhis integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him\nwithout cause._\n\n4 _And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that\na man hath will he give for his life._\n\n5 _But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and\nhe will curse thee to thy face._\n\n6 _And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold he is in thine hand; but save\nhis life._\n\n7\u00b6 _So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job\nwith sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown._\n\n8 _And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down\namong the ashes._\n\n9\u00b6 _Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine\nintegrity? curse God, and die._\n\n10 _But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women\nspeaketh. What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we\nnot receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips._\n\n11\u00b6 _Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come\nupon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite,\nand Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an\nappointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him._\n\n12 _And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they\nlifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and\nsprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven._\n\n13 _So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven\nnights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that_ his\n_grief was very great_.\n\n\nCHAP. III. A.V.\n\n1 _After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day_.\n\n2 _And Job spake, and said_:\n\nI\n\nJOB:\n\n  Would the day had perished wherein I was born,\n  And the night which said: behold, a man child!\n  Would that God on high had not called for it,\n  And that light had not shone upon it!\n\nII\n\n  Would that darkness and gloom had claimed it for their own;\n  Would that clouds had hovered over it;\n  Would it never had been joined to the days of the year,\n  Nor entered into the number of the months!\n\nIII\n\n  Would that that night had been barren,\n  And that rejoicing had not come therein;\n  That they had cursed it who curse the days,[196]\n  That the stars of its twilight had waxed dim!\n\nIV\n\n  Would it had yearned for light but found none,\n  Nor beheld the eye-lids of the morning dawn!\n  For it closed not the door of my mother's womb,\n  Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.\n\nV\n\n  Why died I not straight from the womb?\n  Why, having come out of the belly, did I not expire?\n  Why did the knees meet me?\n  And why the breasts, that I might suck?\n\nVI\n\n  For then should I have lain still and been quiet,\n  I should have slept and now had been at rest,\n  With the kings and counsellors of the earth,\n  Who built desolate places for themselves.\n\nVII\n\n  Or with princes, once rich in gold,\n  Who filled their houses with silver,\n  I should be as being not, as an hidden untimely birth,\n  Like infants which never saw the light!\n\nVIII\n\n  There the wicked cease from troubling,\n  And there the weary be at rest;\n  There the prisoners repose together,\n  Nor hear the taskmaster's voice.\n\nIX\n\n  Why gives he light to the afflicted,\n  And life unto the bitter in soul,\n  Who yearn for death, but it cometh not,\n  And dig for it more than for buried treasures?\n\nX\n\n  Hail to the man who hath found a grave!\n  Then only hath God \"hedged him in.\"[197]\n  For sighing is become my bread,\n  And my crying is unto me as water.\n\nXI\n\n  For the thing I dreaded cometh upon me,\n  And that I trembled at befalleth me.\n  I am not in safety, neither have I rest;\n  Nor quiet, but trouble cometh alway.\n\nXII\n\nELIPHAZ:\n\n  Lo, thou hast instructed many,\n  Thy words have upholden him that was stumbling.\n  Now hath thine own turn come,\n  And thou thyself art worried and troubled.\n\nXIII\n\n  Was not the fear of God thy confidence?\n  And the uprightness of thy ways thy hope?\n  Bethink, I pray thee, who ever perished guiltless?\n  Or where were the righteous cut off?\n\nXIV\n\n  I saw them punished that plough iniquity,\n  And them that sow sorrow reap the same;\n  By the blast of God they perish,\n  And by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.[198]\n\nXV\n\n  Now a word was wafted unto me by stealth,[199]\n  And mine ear received the whisper thereof;\n  In thoughts from the visions of the night,\n  When deep sleep falleth upon man.\n\nXVI\n\n  Fear came upon me and trembling,\n  Which made all my bones to shake.\n  Then a spectre sped before my face;\n  The hair of my flesh bristled up.\n\nXVII\n\n  It stood, but I could not discern its form.\n  I heard a gentle voice:--\n  \"Shall a mortal be more just than God?\n  Shall a man be more pure than his maker?\n\nXVIII\n\n  Behold, in his servants he puts no trust,--\n  Nay, his angels[200] he chargeth with folly;--\n  How much less in the dwellers in houses of clay,\n  Whose foundations are down in the dust.\n\nXIX\n\n  Between dawn and evening they are destroyed:\n  They perish and no man recketh.\n  Is not their tent-pole torn up?[201]\n  And bereft of wisdom, they die.\"\n\nXX\n\n  Call now, if so be any will answer thee;\n  And to which of the angels wilt thou turn?\n  For his own wrath killeth the foolish man,\n  And envy slayeth the silly one.\n\nXXI\n\n  His children are far from safety;\n  They are crushed, and there is none to save them.\n  The hungry eateth up their harvest,\n  And the thirsty swilleth their milk.\n\nXXII\n\n  For affliction springeth not out of the dust,\n  Nor doth sorrow sprout up from the ground;--\n  For man is born unto trouble,\n  Even as the sparks fly upward.\n\nXXIII\n\n  But I would seek unto God,\n  And unto God would I commit my cause,\n  Who doth great things and unfathomable,\n  Marvellous things without number.\n\nXXIV\n\n  He giveth rain unto the earth,\n  And sendeth waters upon the fields;\n  To set up on high those that be low,\n  That they who mourn may be helped to victory.\n\nXXV\n\n  He catcheth the wise in their own craftiness,\n  And the counsel of the cunning is thwarted;\n  Wherefore they encounter darkness in the daytime,\n  And at noonday grope as in the night.\n\nXXVI\n\n  The poor he delivereth from the sword of their mouth,\n  And the needy out of the hand of the mighty;\n  Thus the miserable man obtaineth hope,\n  And iniquity stoppeth her mouth.\n\nXXVII\n\n  Happy is the man whom God correcteth;\n  Therefore spurn not thou the chastening of the Almighty:\n  For he maketh sore and bindeth up;\n  He smiteth, and his hands make whole.\n\nXXVIII\n\n  He shall deliver thee in six troubles,\n  Yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee:--\n  In famine he shall redeem thee from death,\n  And in war from the power of the sword.\n\nXXIX\n\n  Thou shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue,[202]\n  Neither shalt thou fear misfortune when it cometh;\n  At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh,\n  Nor shalt dread the beasts of the earth.\n\nXXX\n\n  For thy tent shall abide in peace,\n  And thou shalt visit thy dwelling and miss nought therein;\n  Thou shalt likewise know that thy seed will be great,\n  And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.\n\nXXXI\n\n  Thou shalt go down to thy grave in the fulness of thy days,\n  Ripe as a shock of corn brought home in its season.\n  Lo, this have we found out, so it is!\n  This we have heard, and take it thou to heart.\n\nXXXII\n\nJOB:\n\n  Oh that my \"wrath\" were thoroughly weighed,\n  And my woe laid against it in the balances!\n  For it would prove heavier than the sands of the sea;\n  Therefore are my words wild.\n\nXXXIII\n\n  For the arrows of the Almighty are within me;\n  My spirit drinketh in the venom thereof.\n  The terrors of God move against me,\n  He useth me like to an enemy.\n\nXXXIV\n\n  Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?\n  Or loweth the ox over his fodder?\n  Would one eat things insipid without salt?\n  Is there taste in the white of raw eggs?\n\nXXXV\n\n  Oh that I might have my request,\n  And that God would grant me the thing I long for!\n  Even that it would please him to destroy me,\n  That he would let go his hand and cut me off!\n\nXXXVI\n\n  Then should I yet have comfort,\n  Yea, I would exult in my relentless pain.\n  For that, at least, would be my due from God,\n  Since I have never withstood the words of the Holy One.\n\nXXXVII\n\n  What is my strength that I should hope?\n  And what mine end that I should be patient?\n  Is my strength the strength of stones?\n  Or is my flesh of brass?\n\nXXXVIII\n\n  Am I not utterly bereft of help?\n  And is not rescue driven wholly away from me?\n  Is not pity the duty of the friend,\n  Who, else, turneth away from the fear of God?\n\nXXXIX\n\n  My brethren have disappointed me as a torrent,\n  They pass away as a stream of brooks,\n  Which were blackish by reason of the ice,\n  Wherein the snow hideth itself.\n\nXL\n\n  The caravans of Tema sought for them,\n  The companies of Sheba hoped for them.\n  But when the sun warmed them they vanished;\n  When it waxed hot they were consumed from their place.\n\nXLI\n\n  Did I say: Bestow aught upon me?\n  Or give a bribe for me of your substance?\n  Or deliver me from the enemy's hand?\n  Or redeem me from the hand of the mighty?\n\nXLII\n\n  Teach me and I will hold my tongue;\n  And cause me to discern wherein I have erred.\n  How cutting are your \"righteous\" words!\n  But what doth your arguing reprove?\n\nXLIII\n\n  Do ye imagine to rebuke words?\n  But the words of the desperate are spoken to the wind.\n  Will ye even assail me, the blameless one?\n  And harrow up your friend?\n\nXLIV\n\n  But now vouchsafe to turn unto me,\n  For surely I will not lie to your face.\n  I pray you, return; let no wrong be done.\n  Return, for justice abideth still within me.\n\nXLV\n\n  Is there iniquity in my tongue?\n  Cannot my palate discern misfortunes?\n  Hath not man warfare upon earth?\n  And are not his days like to those of an hireling?\n\nXLVI\n\n  As a slave panting for the shade, and finding it not,\n  As an hireling awaiting the wage for his work,\n  So to me months of sorrow are allotted,\n  And wearisome nights are appointed to me.\n\nXLVII\n\n  Lying down I exclaim: When shall I arise?\n  And I toss from side to side till the dawning of the day;[203]\n  My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust,\n  My skin grows rigid and breaks up again.\n\nXLVIII\n\n  My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,\n  And have come to an end without hope;[204]\n  Remember, I pray, that my life is wind,\n  That mine eye shall see good no more.\n\nXLIX\n\n  As the cloud is dispelled and vanisheth away,\n  So he that goes down to the grave shall not come up again;\n  He shall never return to his house,\n  Neither shall his place know him any more.\n\nL\n\n  I too will not restrain my mouth,\n  I will speak out in the bitterness of my soul.\n  Am I a sea or a sea-monster,[205]\n  That thou settest a watch over me?\n\nLI\n\n  When I say: \"My bed shall comfort me,\n  My couch shall ease my complaint;\"\n  Then thou scarest me with dreams,\n  And terrifiest me with visions.\n\nLII\n\n  Then my soul would have chosen strangling,\n  And death by my own resolve:\n  But I spurned it, for I shall not live for ever;\n  Let me be, for my days are a breath.\n\nLIII\n\n  What is man that thou shouldst magnify him?\n  And that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him?\n  That thou shouldst visit him every morning,\n  And try him every moment?[206]\n\nLIV\n\n  Why wilt thou not look away from me?\n  Nor leave me in peace while there is breath in my throat?\n  Why hast thou set me up as a butt,\n  So that I am become a target for thee?\n\nLV\n\n  Why dost thou not rather pardon my misdeed,\n  And take away mine iniquity?\n  For now I must lay myself down in the dust,\n  And thou shalt seek me, but I shall not be.\n\nLVI\n\nBILDAD:\n\n  How long wilt thou utter these things,\n  And shall the words of thy mouth be like a storm wind?\n  Doth God pervert judgment?\n  Or doth the Almighty corrupt justice?\n\nLVII\n\n  If thou wouldst seek unto God,\n  And make thy supplication to the Almighty,\n  He would hear thy prayer,\n  And restore the house of thy blamelessness.\n\nLVIII\n\n  For inquire, I pray thee, of the bygone age,\n  And give heed to the search of the forefathers;\n  Shall they not teach thee,\n  And utter words out of their heart?\n\nLIX\n\n  Can the papyrus grow without marsh?\n  Can the Nile-reed shoot up without water?\n  Whilst still in its greenness uncut,\n  It withereth before any herb.\n\nLX\n\n  Such is the end of all that forget God,\n  And even thus shall the hope of the impious perish,\n  Whose hope is as gossamer threads,\n  And whose trust is as a spider's web.\n\nLXI\n\n  For he leans upon his house,\n  And has a firm footing to which he cleaves;\n  He is green in the glow of the sun,\n  And his branch shooteth forth in his garden.\n\nLXII\n\n  But his roots are entangled in a heap of stones,\n  And rocky soil keeps hold upon him;\n  It destroyeth him from his place,\n  Then that denying him saith: \"I have not seen thee.\"\n\nLXIII\n\n  Behold, this is the \"joy\" of his lot,\n  And out of the dust shall others grow.\n  Lo! God will not cast out a perfect man,\n  Neither will he take evil-doers by the hand.\n\nLXIV\n\n  He will yet fill thy mouth with laughing\n  And thy lips with rejoicing.\n  They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame,\n  And the tent of the wicked shall disappear.\n\nLXV\n\nJOB:\n\n  I know it is so of a truth;\n  For how should man be in the right against God?\n  If he long to contend with him,\n  He cannot answer him one of a thousand.\n\nLXVI\n\n  Wise is he in heart and mighty in strength:\n  Who could venture against him and remain safe?--\n  Against him who moveth mountains and knoweth not\n  That he hath overturned them in his anger.\n\nLXVII\n\n  He shaketh the earth out of her place,\n  And the inhabitants thereof quake with fear;\n  He commandeth the sun and it riseth not,\n  And he sealeth up the stars.[207]\n\nLXVIII\n\n  He alone spreadeth out the heavens,\n  And treadeth upon the heights of the sea;\n  He doth great things past finding out,\n  Yea, and wonders without number.[208]\n\nLXIX\n\n  Lo, he glideth by me and I see him not;\n  And he passeth on, but I perceive him not.\n  Behold, he taketh away, and who can hinder him?\n  Who will say unto him: \"What dost thou?\"\n\nLXX\n\n  God will not withdraw his anger;\n  The very helpers of the sea-dragon[209] crouch under him.\n  How much less shall I answer him,\n  And choose out my words to argue with him?\n\nLXXI\n\n  I must make supplication unto his judgment,\n  Who doth not answer me, though I am righteous,\n  Who would sweep me away with a tempest,\n  And multiply my wounds without cause!\n\nLXXII\n\n  He will not suffer me to take my breath,\n  But filleth me with bitterness.\n  If strength be aught, lo, he is strong,\n  And if judgment, who shall arraign him?\n\nLXXIII\n\n  Though I were just, my own mouth would condemn me:\n  Though I were faultless, he would make me crooked.\n  Faultless I am, I set life at naught;\n  I spurn my being, therefore I speak out.\n\nLXXIV\n\n  He destroyeth the upright and the wicked,\n  When his scourge slayeth at unawares.\n  He scoffeth at the trial of the innocent:\n  The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.\n\nLXXV\n\n  My days are swifter than a runner:\n  They flee away, they have seen no good;\n  They glide along like papyrus-boats,\n  Like the eagle swooping upon its prey.\n\nLXXVI\n\n  If I say: \"I will forget my complaint,\n  I will gladden my face and be cheerful;\"\n  Then I shudder at all my sorrows:\n  I know thou wilt not hold me guiltless.\n\nLXXVII\n\n  If I washed myself with snow,\n  And cleansed my hands with lye,\n  Thou wouldst plunge me in the ditch,\n  So that mine own garments would loathe me.\n\nLXXVIII\n\n  Would he were like unto myself, that I might answer him,\n  That we might come together in judgment!\n  Would there were an umpire between us,\n  Who might lay his hand upon us both!\n\nLXXIX\n\n  Let him but withdraw from me his rod,\n  And let not dread of him terrify me;\n  Then would I speak and not fear him,\n  For before myself I am not so.[210]\n\nLXXX\n\n  My soul is aweary of life,\n  I will let loose my complaint against God;\n  I will say unto God: Hold me not guilty;\n  Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.\n\nLXXXI\n\n  Is it meet that thou shouldst oppress,\n  Shouldst thrust aside the work of thine hands?\n  Seest thou as man seeth?\n  Are thy days as the days of mortals?\n\nLXXXII\n\n  For thou inquirest after mine iniquity,\n  And searchest after my sin,\n  Though thou knowest that I am not wicked,\n  And that there is none who can deliver out of thine hand.\n\nLXXXIII\n\n  Thine hand hath made and fashioned me,\n  And now hast thou turned to destroy me;\n  Remember, I pray thee, that thou hast formed me as clay;\n  And now wilt thou grind me to dust again?\n\nLXXXIV\n\n  Didst thou not pour me out as milk,\n  And curdle me like cheese?\n  Hast thou not clothed me with skin and flesh?\n  And knitted me with bones and sinews?\n\nLXXXV\n\n  Thou enduedst me with life and grace;\n  And thy care hath cherished my spirit.\n  And yet these things hadst thou hid in thy heart!\n  I know that this was in thee!\n\nLXXXVI\n\n  Had I sinned, thou wouldst have watched me,\n  Nor wouldst have acquitted me of my wrongdoing.\n  Had I been wicked, woe unto me!\n  And though righteous, I dare not to lift up my head.\n\nLXXXVII\n\n  As a lion thou huntest me, who am soaked in misery,\n  And ever showest thyself marvellous[211] against me!\n  While I live, thou smitest me ever anew,\n  And lettest thy wrath wax great against me.\n\nLXXXVIII\n\n  Wherefore, then, didst thou bring me out of the womb?\n  Would I had then given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!\n  I should now be as though I had never been;\n  I had been borne from the womb to the grave.\n\nLXXXIX\n\n  Are not the days of my life but few,\n  So that he might let me be, while I take heart a little\n  Before I depart whence I shall not return,\n  To the land of darkness and of gloom?\n\nXC\n\nZOPHAR:\n\n  Shall the multitude of words be left unanswered?\n  And shall the prattler[212] be deemed in the right?\n  Should men hold their peace at thy babbling?\n  And when thou jeerest, shall none make thee ashamed?\n\nXCI\n\n  But oh that God would speak,\n  And open his lips against thee,\n  And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom\n  That they are as marvels to the understanding!\n\nXCII\n\n  It[213] is high as heaven; what canst thou do?\n  Deeper than hell; what canst thou know?\n  The measure thereof is longer than the earth,\n  And broader than the ocean.\n\nXCIII\n\n  For he knoweth men of deceit;\n  He seeth wickedness and needeth not to gauge it.\n  Thus[214] the empty man gets understanding,\n  And the wild-ass' colt is born anew as man.\n\nXCIV\n\n  If thou make ready thine heart,\n  And stretch out thine hands towards him,\n  Then shalt thou lift up thy face,\n  And in time of affliction be fearless.\n\nXCV\n\n  For then shalt thou forget thy misery,\n  And remember it as waters that have passed away;\n  The darkness shall be as morning,\n  And thine age shall be brighter than the noonday.\n\nXCVI\n\n  Thou shalt be secure because there is hope,\n  Thou shalt look around and take thy rest in safety;\n  Thou shalt lie down and none shall startle thee,\n  Yea, many shall make suit unto thee.\n\nXCVII\n\n  But the eyes of the wicked shall fail,\n  And refuge shall vanish from before them;\n  Their hope shall be the giving up of the ghost;\n  For with him is wisdom and might.\n\nXCVIII\n\nJOB:\n\n  No doubt but ye are clever people,\n  And wisdom shall die with you;\n  I too have understanding as well as ye;\n  Just, upright is my way.\n\nXCIX\n\n  He that is at ease, scorneth the judgments of Shaddai.[215]\n  His foot stands firm in the time of trial.\n  The tents of robbers prosper,\n  And they that provoke God are secure.\n\nC\n\n  But ask, I beseech you, the beasts,\n  And the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee;\n  Or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee,\n  And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.\n\nCI\n\n  Is not the soul of every living thing in his hand,\n  And the breath of all mankind?\n  Doth not the ear try words\n  As the mouth tasteth its meat?\n\nCII\n\n  For there is no wisdom with the aged,[216]\n  Nor understanding in length of days;\n  With him is wisdom and strength;\n  He hath counsel and understanding.\n\nCIII\n\n  Behold he breaketh down and it cannot be builded anew:\n  He shutteth up a man, and who can open to him?\n  Lo, he withholdeth the waters and they dry up,\n  He letteth them loose and they overwhelm the earth.\n\nCIV\n\n  With him is strength and wisdom,\n  The erring one and his error are his,\n  Who leadeth away counsellors barefoot,\n  And rendereth the judges fools.\n\nCV\n\n  He bringeth back kings into their mausoleums,\n  And overthroweth the nobles;\n  He withdraweth the speech of the trusty,\n  And taketh away the understanding of the aged.\n\nCVI\n\n  He poureth scorn upon princes,\n  And looseth the girdle of the strong;\n  He discovereth deep things out of darkness,\n  And bringeth gloom unto light.\n\nCVII\n\n  He stealeth the heart of the chiefs of the earth,\n  And maketh them wander in a pathless wilderness\n  So that they grope in the dark without light,\n  And stagger to and fro like a drunken man.\n\nCVIII\n\n  Lo, mine eye hath seen all this,\n  Mine ear hath heard and understood it.\n  What ye know, the same do I know also;\n  I am nowise inferior to you.\n\nCIX\n\n  But now I would speak to the Almighty,\n  And I long to argue with God;\n  For ye are weavers of lies,\n  Ye all are patchers of inanities.\n\nCX\n\n  Oh that ye would all of you hold your peace,\n  And that should stand you in wisdom's stead!\n  Hear, I beseech you, the reasoning of my mouth,\n  And hearken to the pleadings of my lips!\n\nCXI\n\n  Will ye discourse wickedly for God?\n  And utter lies on his behalf?[217]\n  Will ye accept his person by dint of trickery?\n  Will ye contend for God with deception?\n\nCXII\n\n  Were it well for you should he search you out?\n  Can ye dupe him as ye dupe men?\n  Will he not surely rebuke you,\n  If ye secretly[218] accept his person?\n\nCXIII\n\n  Shall not his majesty, then, make you afraid?\n  And his dread seize hold of you?\n  Will not your adages become as ashes,\n  Your arguments even as bulwarks of clay?\n\nCXIV\n\n  Hold your peace that I may speak,\n  And let come upon me what will!\n  I shall take my life in my teeth,\n  And put my soul in mine hand.\n\nCXV\n\n  Lo, let him kill me, I cherish hope no more,\n  Only I will justify my way before his face.\n  This too will aid my triumph,\n  That no wicked one dares appear in his sight.\n\nCXVI\n\n  Behold now, I have ordered my cause;\n  I know that I shall be justified.\n  Who is he that will plead with me?\n  Only do not two things unto me!\n\nCXVII\n\n  Withdraw thine hand from me,\n  And let not dread of thee make me afraid.\n  Then call thou and I will answer,\n  Or let me speak and answer thou unto me.\n\nCXVIII\n\n  How many are mine iniquities?\n  Make me to know my misdeeds.\n  Wherefore hidest thou thy face,\n  And holdest me for thine enemy?\n\nCXIX\n\n  Wilt thou scare a leaf driven to and fro?\n  And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?\n  That thou writest down bitter things against me,\n  And imputest to me the errors of my youth.\n\nCXX\n\n  Thou observest all my paths,\n  And puttest my feet into the stocks,\n  Thy chain weigheth heavy upon me,\n  And cutteth into my feet.[219]\n\nCXXI\n\n  Man that is born of a woman,\n  Poor in days and rich in trouble;\n  He cometh forth like a flower and fadeth,\n  He fleeth as a shadow and abideth not.\n\nCXXII\n\n  And upon such an one dost thou open thine eyes!\n  And him thou bringest into judgment with thee!\n  Though he is gnawed as a rotten thing,\n  As a garment that is moth-eaten.\n\nCXXIII\n\n  If his days are determined upon earth,\n  If the number of his months are with thee;\n  Look then away from him that he may rest,\n  Till he shall accomplish his day, as an hireling.\n\nCXXIV\n\n  For there is a future for the tree,\n  And hope remaineth to the palm:\n  Cut down, it will sprout again,\n  And its tender branch will not cease.\n\nCXXV\n\n  Though its roots wax old in the earth\n  And its stock lie buried in mould,\n  Yet through vapour of water will it bud,\n  And bring forth boughs like a plant.\n\nCXXVI\n\n  But man dieth, and lieth outstretched;\n  He giveth up the ghost, where is he then?\n  He lieth down and riseth not up;\n  Till heaven be no more he shall not awake.\n\nCXXVII\n\n  Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the grave!\n  That thou wouldst secrete me till thy wrath be passed!\n  That thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me!\n  If so be man could die and yet live on!\n\nCXXVIII\n\n  All the days of my warfare I then would wait,\n  Till my relief should come;\n  Thou wouldst call and I would answer thee,\n  Thou wouldst yearn after the work of thine hands.\n\nCXXIX\n\n  But now thou renumberest my steps,\n  Thou dost not forgive my failing;\n  Thou sealest my transgressions in a bag,\n  And thou still keepest adding to my guilt.\n\nCXXX\n\nELIPHAZ:\n\n  Should a wise man utter empty knowledge,\n  And fill his belly with the east wind?\n  Should he reason with bootless prattle?\n  Or with speeches that profit him nothing?\n\nCXXXI\n\n  Yea, thou makest void the fear of God,\n  And weakenest respect before him;\n  For thine own iniquity instructeth thy mouth,\n  And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.\n\nCXXXII\n\n  Art thou the first man born?\n  Or wast thou made before the hills?\n  Wast thou heard in the council of God?\n  And hast thou drawn wisdom unto thyself?\n\nCXXXIII\n\n  What knowest thou that we know not?\n  What understandest thou which is not in us?\n  Doth the solace of God not suffice unto thee,\n  And a word to thee whispered softly?\n\nCXXXIV\n\n  Why doth thine heart carry thee away,\n  And what do thine eyes wink at,\n  That thou turnest thy spirit against God,\n  And lettest go such words from thy mouth?\n\nCXXXV\n\n  Behold he putteth no trust in his saints;\n  Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight;\n  How much less the foul and corrupt one,--\n  Man, who lappeth up wickedness like water.\n\nCXXXVI\n\n  What the wise announce unto us,\n  Their fathers did not withhold it from them;\n  Unto them alone the land was given,\n  And no stranger passed among them.[220]\n\nCXXXVII\n\n  The wicked man travaileth all his days with pain,\n  And few are the years appointed to the oppressor:\n  A sound of dread is in his ears:\n  In prosperity the destroyer shall overtake him.\n\nCXXXVIII\n\n  He has no hope of return out of darkness,\n  And he is waited for by the sword.\n  The day of gloom shall terrify him,\n  Distress and anguish shall fasten upon him.\n\nCXXXIX\n\n  For he stretched out his arm against God,\n  And girded himself against the Almighty:\n  Rushing upon him with a stiff neck,\n  Guarded by the thick bosses of his buckler.\n\nCXL\n\n  The glow shall dry up his branches,\n  And his blossom shall be snapped by the storm-wind.\n  Let him not trust in vanity--he is deluded,\n  For his barter[221] shall prove worthless.\n\nCXLI\n\n  His offshoot shall wither before his time,\n  And his branch shall not be green;\n  He shall shake off his unripe grape, like the vine,\n  And shall shed his flower like the olive.\n\nCXLII\n\n  For the tribe of the wicked shall be barren,\n  And fire shall consume the tents of bribery:\n  They conceive mischief, and bring forth disaster,\n  And their belly breeds abortion.\n\nCXLIII\n\nJOB:\n\n  Many such things have I heard before.\n  Stinging comforters are ye all!\n  Shall idle words have an end?\n  What pricks thee that thou answerest?\n\nCXLIV\n\n  I, too, could discourse as ye do,\n  If your souls were in my soul's stead.\n  I would inspirit you with my mouth,\n  Nor would I grudge the moving of my lips.\n\nCXLV\n\n  But he hath so jaded me that I am benumbed;\n  His whole host[222] hath seized me.\n  His wrath hackles me and pursues me,\n  He gnashes upon me with his teeth.\n\nCXLVI\n\n  The arrows of his myriads have stricken me,\n  He whets his sword, fixing his eyes upon me.\n  They smite me on the cheek outrageously,\n  They mass themselves together against me.\n\nCXLVII\n\n  God hath turned me over to the ungodly,\n  And delivered me into the hands of the wicked.\n  I was at ease, but he clove me asunder,\n  He throttled me and shook me to pieces.\n\nCXLVIII\n\n  He sets me up for his target;\n  His archers compass me round about;\n  He rives my reins asunder, and spareth not,\n  He poureth out my gall upon the ground.\n\nCXLIX\n\n  With breach upon breach he breaketh me,\n  He rusheth upon me like a warrior;\n  Sackcloth and ashes cover me,\n  And my horn has been laid in the dust.\n\nCL\n\n  My face is aglow with weeping\n  And darkness abides on my eyelids;\n  Though on my hands there is no evil,\n  And my prayer is pure!\n\nCLI\n\n  Oh earth! cover not thou my blood!\n  And let my cry find no resting-place!\n  Even now behold my witness is in heaven,\n  And my voucher is on high.\n\nCLII\n\n  My friends laugh me wantonly to scorn;\n  Mine eye poureth tears unto God.\n  Let him adjudge between man and God,\n  And between man and his fellow.\n\nCLIII\n\n  Soon will the wailing-women come,\n  And I go the way I shall not return.\n  My spirit is spent, the grave is ready for me\n  Truly I am scoffed at.\n\nCLIV\n\n  Hold still my pledge in thy keeping,\n  Who then will be my voucher?[223]\n  He yielded his friends as a prey,\n  And the eyes of his children must shrivel up.\n\nCLV\n\n  He hath made me a by-word of the peoples,\n  And they spit into my face.\n  My eye is dim by dint of sorrow,\n  And all my members are as a shadow.\n\nCLVI\n\n  At this the upright are appalled,\n  And the just bridles up against the impious.\n  But the righteous holds on his way,\n  And the clean-handed waxeth ever stronger.\n\nCLVII\n\n  But as for you all--do ye return,\n  For I discern not one wise man among you.\n  My days, my thoughts have passed away;\n  My heart's desires are cut asunder.\n\nCLVIII\n\n  If I still hope, it is for my house--the tomb.\n  I have made my bed in the darkness.\n  I have said unto the grave, \"My Mother,\"\n  And to the maggot, \"Sister mine.\"\n\nCLIX\n\n  And my hope--where is it now?\n  My bliss--who shall behold it?[224]\n  They go down to the bars of the pit,\n  When our rest together is in the dust.\n\nCLX\n\nBILDAD:\n\n  When wilt thou make an end of words?\n  Reflect, and then let us speak!\n  Wherefore are we counted as beasts?\n  Deemed silenced in thy sight?\n\nCLXI\n\n  Shall the earth be deserted for thy sake?\n  And shall the rock be removed from its place?\n  Still the light of the wicked shall be douted,\n  And the spark of his fire shall not twinkle.\n\nCLXII\n\n  The light in his tent shall be dark;\n  And his taper above him shall be put out.\n  The steps of his strength shall be straitened,\n  And his own design shall ruin him.\n\nCLXIII\n\n  For he is tangled in the net by his own feet,\n  And he walketh upon a snare.\n  The slings shall catch him;\n  Many terrors rage menacingly round him.\n\nCLXIV\n\n  Hunger shall dog his footsteps;\n  Misery and ruin stand ready by his side:\n  The limbs of his body[225] shall be gnawed,\n  Devoured by the firstborn of death.[226]\n\nCLXV\n\n  He shall be dragged out from his stronghold,\n  And he shall be brought to the king of terrors;[227]\n  The memory of him shall vanish from the earth,\n  He shall be driven from light into darkness.\n\nCLXVI\n\n  He shall have nor son nor offspring among his people,\n  And he shall have no name above the ground;\n  None shall survive in his dwellings;\n  Strangers shall dwell in his tent.\n\nCLXVII\n\n  They of the west are astonied at him,\n  And those of the east stand aghast:\n  Such are the dwellings of the wicked,\n  And this his place who knoweth not God.\n\nCLXVIII\n\nJOB:\n\n  How long will ye harrow my soul,\n  And crush me with words?\n  Already ten times have ye insulted me,\n  Ever incensing me anew.\n\nCLXIX\n\n  If indeed ye will glorify yourselves above me,\n  And prove me guilty of blasphemy;\n  Know, then, that God hath wronged me,\n  And hath compassed me round with his net!\n\nCLXX\n\n  Lo, I cry out against violence, but I am not heard;\n  I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.\n  He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass;\n  And he hath set darkness in my paths.\n\nCLXXI\n\n  He hath stripped me of my glory,\n  And taken the crown from my head.\n  On all sides hath he ruined me, and I am undone;\n  And mine hope hath he felled like a tree.\n\nCLXXII\n\n  He hath kindled against me his wrath,\n  And looketh on me as one of his foes.\n  His troops throng together on my way,\n  And encamp round about my tent.\n\nCLXXIII\n\n  He hath put my brethren far from me,\n  And mine acquaintance are estranged from me;\n  My kinsfolk stay away from me,\n  And my bosom friends have forgotten me.\n\nCLXXIV\n\n  They that dwell in my house, and my maids,\n  As an alien am I in their eyes.\n  I call my servant, and he giveth me no answer,\n  I must supplicate unto him with my mouth.\n\nCLXXV\n\n  My breath is irksome to my wife,\n  And my entreaty to the children of my body.[228]\n  Yea, mere lads despise me:\n  When I arise, they talk about me.\n\nCLXXVI\n\n  All my cherished friends abhor me,\n  And they whom I loved are turned against me;\n  My skin cleaveth to my bones,\n  And my teeth are falling out.\n\nCLXXVII\n\n  Have pity, have pity on me, O my friends!\n  For the hand of God hath smitten me.\n  Why do ye persecute me like God,\n  And are not satiated with my flesh?\n\nCLXXVIII\n\n  Oh would but that my words,\n  Oh would that they were written down!\n  Consigned to writing for ever,\n  Or engraven upon a rock!\n\nCLXXIX\n\n  But I know that my avenger liveth,\n  Though it be at the[229] end upon my dust;\n  My witness will avenge these things,\n  And a curse alight upon mine enemies.\n\nCLXXX\n\n  My reins within me are consumed,\n  Because you say: \"How we shall persecute him!\"\n  Fear, for yourselves, the sword,\n  For \"wrath overtaketh iniquities.\"\n\nCLXXXI\n\nZOPHAR:\n\n  It is not thus that my thoughts inspire me,\n  Nor is this the eternal law that I have known.[230]\n  No; the triumph of the wicked is shortlived,\n  And the joy of the ungodly is but for a twinkling.\n\nCLXXXII\n\n  Though his height tower aloft to the heavens,\n  And his head reach up to the clouds,\n  Yet shall he perish for ever like dung,\n  They who have seen him shall ask: \"Where is he?\"\n\nCLXXXIII\n\n  He flitteth like a dream and shall not be found,\n  Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night;\n  His hands having crushed the needy,\n  Must restore the substance, and he cannot help it.\n\nCLXXXIV\n\n  He hath swallowed down riches and shall disgorge them anew;\n  They shall be driven out of his belly.\n  He hath sucked in the poison of asps,\n  The viper's tongue shall slay him.\n\nCLXXXV\n\n  He shall not gaze upon the rivers,\n  The brooks of honey and milk;\n  He must restore the gain and shall not swallow it,\n  His lucre shall be as sand which he cannot chew.\n\nCLXXXVI\n\n  For the poor he had crushed and forsaken;\n  Had robbed an house but shall not build it up.\n  Nought had escaped from his greed,\n  Therefore shall his wealth not endure.\n\nCLXXXVII\n\n  In the fulness of his abundance he shall be in straits,\n  Every hand of the wretched shall come upon him:\n  He[231] shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him,\n  And shall rain down upon him terrors.\n\nCLXXXVIII\n\n  When he fleeth from the iron weapon,\n  Then the arrow of steel shall transfix him;\n  He draweth, and it cometh out of his back,\n  And the glittering steel out of his gall.\n\nCLXXXIX\n\n  Terrors will trample upon him,\n  All darkness is hid in store for him;\n  A fire not kindled[232] shall consume him,\n  What remaineth in his tent shall be devoured thereby.\n\nCXC\n\n  The heavens reveal his iniquity,\n  And the earth riseth up against him:\n  This is the wicked man's portion from God,\n  And the heritage appointed him by Elohim.\n\nCXCI\n\nJOB:\n\n  Hearken diligently to my speech,\n  And let that stand me in your comfort's stead!\n  Suffer me that I may speak;\n  And after that I have spoken, mock on!\n\nCXCII\n\n  As for me, is my complaint to men?\n  And how should not my spirit be impatient?\n  Look upon me, and tremble,\n  And lay your hand upon your mouth![233]\n\nCXCIII\n\n  Even when I remember, I am dismayed,\n  And trembling taketh hold on my flesh.\n  Wherefore do the wicked live?\n  Become old, yea, wax mighty in strength?\n\nCXCIV\n\n  Their houses are safe from fear,\n  Neither is the rod of God upon them;\n  Their bull genders and faileth not,\n  Their cow casteth not her calf.\n\nCXCV\n\n  Their seed is established in their sight,\n  And their offspring before their eyes;\n  They send forth their little ones like a flock,\n  And their children skip about.\n\nCXCVI\n\n  They take down the timbrel and the harp,\n  And delight in the sound of the bagpipe;\n  They while away their days in bliss,\n  And in a twinkling go down to the grave.[234]\n\nCXCVII\n\n  And yet they say unto God: \"Depart from us,\n  We desire not the knowledge of thy ways.\"\n  Yet hold they not happiness in their own hands?\n  Is he not heedless of the counsel of the wicked?\n\nCXCVIII\n\n  How oft is \"the lamp of evil-doers put out\"?\n  And how often doth \"ruin\" overwhelm them?\n  How oft are they as stubble before the wind,\n  And as chaff that the storm carries away?\n\nCXCIX\n\n  Ye say, \"God hoards punishment for the[235] children.\"\n  Let him rather requite the wicked himself that he may feel it!\n  His own eyes should behold his downfall\n  And he himself should drain the Almighty's wrath!\n\nCC\n\n  If his sons are honoured,[236] he will not know it,\n  And if dishonoured, he will not perceive it.\n  Only in his own flesh doth he feel pain,\n  And for his own soul will he lament.\n\nCCI\n\n  Is the wicked taught understanding by God?\n  And does he judge the man of blood?\n  Nay, he[237] filleth his milk vessels with milk,\n  And supplieth his bones with marrow.\n\nCCII\n\n  But the guiltless dies with embittered soul,\n  And hath never enjoyed a pleasure;\n  Then they alike lie down in the dust,\n  And the worms shall cover them both.\n\nCCIII\n\n  Behold I know your thoughts,\n  And the plots which ye wrongfully weave against me.\n  And how will ye comfort me in vain,\n  Since of your answers nought but falsehood remains?\n\nCCIV\n\nELIPHAZ:\n\n  Can a man be profitable unto God?\n  Only unto himself is the wise man serviceable.\n  Is it a boon to the Almighty that thou art righteous?\n  Or is it gain to him that thou makest thy way perfect?\n\nCCV\n\n  Will he reprove thee for thy fear of him?\n  Will he enter with thee into judgment for that?\n  Is not rather thy wickedness great?\n  Are not thine iniquities numberless?\n\nCCVI\n\n  For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought,\n  And stripped the naked of their clothing;\n  Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,\n  And hast withholden bread from the hungry.\n\nCCVII\n\n  But as for the mighty man, he held the land,\n  And the honoured man dwelt in it.\n  Thou hast sent widows away empty,\n  And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.\n\nCCVIII\n\n  Therefore snares are round about thee,\n  And sudden fear troubleth thee;\n  Thy light hath become darkness, thou canst not see,\n  And a flood of waters covereth thee.\n\nCCIX\n\n  Doth not God look down from the height of heaven,\n  And crush the mighty for that they are grown haughty,\n  Which say unto God: \"Depart from us,\"\n  And \"What can the Almighty do against us?\"\n\nCCX\n\n  And he forsooth \"shall fill their houses with goods,\"\n  And \"be heedless of the counsel of the wicked\":\n  No; the righteous shall look on and be glad,\n  And the innocent shall laugh them to scorn.\n\nCCXI\n\n  Befriend now thyself with him, and thou shalt be safe,\n  Thereby shall good come unto thee.\n  Receive, I pray thee, instruction from his mouth,\n  And treasure up his words in thine heart.\n\nCCXII\n\n  If thou turnest to God and humblest thyself,\n  If thou remove iniquity from thy tent,\n  Then shalt thou have delight in the Almighty,\n  And shalt lift up thy face unto God.\n\nCCXIII\n\n  Thou shalt pray unto him and he shall hear thee,\n  And thou shalt pay thy vows;\n  If thou purpose a thing, it shall prosper unto thee,\n  And a light shall shine upon thy ways.\n\nCCXIV\n\nJOB:\n\n  Oh, I know it already: I myself am to blame for my misery,[238]\n  And his hand is heavy upon me by reason of my groaning!\n  Oh that I knew where I might find him,\n  That I might come even unto his seat!\n\nCCXV\n\n  I would plead my cause before him,\n  And fill my mouth with arguments;\n  I would fain know the words which he could answer me,\n  And learn what he would say unto me.\n\nCCXVI\n\n  Will he plead against me with his almighty power?\n  If not, then not even he would prevail against me.\n  For a righteous one would dispute with him;\n  So should I be delivered for ever from my judge.\n\nCCXVII\n\n  Behold I go forward, but he is not there,\n  And backward, but I cannot perceive him.\n  For he knoweth the way that I have chosen:\n  If he would try me, I should come forth as gold.\n\nCCXVIII\n\n  My foot has held his steps,\n  His way have I kept and swerved not;\n  I have not gone back from the precept of his lips,\n  I have hid the words of his mouth in my bosom.\n\nCCXIX\n\n  But he is bent upon one thing and who can turn him away?\n  And what his soul desireth even that he doeth.\n  Therefore am I troubled before his face;\n  When I consider, I am afraid of him.\n\nCCXX\n\n  God hath crushed my heart,\n  And the Almighty hath terrified me.\n  For I am annihilated because of the darkness,\n  And gloom enwrappeth my face.\n\nCCXXI\n\n  Why do the times of judgment depend upon the Almighty,\n  And yet they who know him do not see his days?[239]\n  The wicked remove the landmarks;\n  They rob flocks and lead them to pasture.\n\nCCXXII\n\n  They drive away the ass of the fatherless,\n  The widow's ox they seize for a pledge;\n  They turn the needy out of the way,\n  All the poor of the earth have to hide themselves.[240]\n\nCCXXIII\n\n  Lo, these things mine ear hath heard,\n  Mine eye hath seen them, and so it is.[241]\n  And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar,\n  And render my speech meaningless?\n\nCCXXIV\n\nBILDAD:\n\n  Dominion and fear are with him,\n  Who maketh peace in his high places.\n  Is there any number to his armies?\n  And upon whom doth his light not arise?\n\nCCXXV\n\n  By his power the sea groweth calm,\n  And by his understanding he smiteth the sea-dragon.\n  By his breath the heavens become splendour;\n  His hand hath pierced the bolt-serpent.\n\nCCXXVI\n\n  But the thunder of his power,\n  Who understands its working?\n  And how can man be deemed just before God,\n  And how can he be clean who is born of a woman?\n\nCCXXVII\n\n  Behold, even the moon shineth not,\n  Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight;\n  How much less man, the worm;\n  And the son of man, the maggot!\n\nCCXXVIII\n\nJOB:\n\n  How hast thou helped him that is without power?\n  How upholdest thou the arm that hath no strength?\n  To whom hast thou uttered words?\n  And whose spirit went out from thee?\n\nCCXXIX\n\n  As God liveth who hath taken away my right,\n  And the Almighty who hath made my soul bitter,\n  Never shall my lips confess untruth,\n  Nor my tongue give utterance to falsehood!\n\nCCXXX\n\n  Far be it from me to agree with you!\n  Till I die I will not yield up my integrity!\n  My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go,\n  My heart doth not censure any one of my days.\n\nCCXXXI\n\n  I will teach you about the hand of God,\n  The counsel of the Almighty will I not conceal.\n  Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it.[242]\n  Why then do ye utter such empty things?\n\nCCXXXII\n\n  For there is a mine for silver,\n  And a place for gold where they fine it;\n  Iron is taken out of the dust,\n  And copper is smolten out of the stone.\n\nCCXXXIII\n\n  He that hovers far from man hath made an end to gloom,[243]\n  He turneth the mountains upside down.\n  He cutteth out stulms among the rocks,\n  And the thing that is hid he bringeth forth to light.\n\nCCXXXIV\n\n  But wisdom--whence shall it come?\n  And where is the place of understanding?\n  It is hid from the eyes of all living,\n  Our ears alone have heard thereof.[244]\n\nCCXXXV\n\n  God understandeth its way,\n  And he knoweth its dwelling-place;\n  For he looketh to the ends of the earth,\n  And seeth under the entire heaven.\n\nCCXXXVI\n\n  When he made the weight for the winds,\n  And weighed the waters by measure,\n  Then did he see and declare it,\n  He prepared it, yea, and searched it out.\n\nCCXXXVII\n\n  Then he said unto man, \"Desist!\n  Worry not about things too high for thee.\n  Behold, fear of me, that is wisdom,\n  And to depart from evil, that is understanding.\"\n\nCCXXXVIII\n\nZOPHAR:\n\n  May the lot of the wicked befall mine enemy,\n  And that of the ungodly him who riseth up against me!\n  For what can be the hope of the iniquitous,\n  When God cutteth his soul away?\n\nCCXXXIX\n\n  Will God hear his cry,\n  When trouble overtaketh him?\n  Will he delight himself in the Almighty?\n  Will he always call upon God?\n\nCCXL\n\n  If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword,\n  And his offspring shall not be sated with bread;\n  They that survive him shall be buried in death,\n  And their widows shall not weep.\n\nCCXLI\n\n  Though he heap up silver as the dust\n  And store up raiment as the clay,\n  He may indeed prepare it, but the just shall put it on,\n  And the guiltless shall divide the silver.\n\nCCXLII\n\n  He buildeth his house as a spider;\n  Rich shall he lie down, but rich he shall not remain.\n  Terrors take hold on him like waters;\n  A tempest sweepeth him away in the night.\n\nCCXLIII\n\nJOB:\n\n  Oh that I were as in months gone by,\n  As in the days when God preserved me;\n  When his lamp shined upon my head,\n  And when I walked by his light through darkness!\n\nCCXLIV\n\n  For then I moved in sunshine,\n  While God was familiar with my tent;\n  While I washed my steps in cream,\n  And the rock poured me out rivers of oil.\n\nCCXLV\n\n  When I went to the gate at the city,[245]\n  When I prepared my seat on the public place,\n  Then the young men, seeing me, hid themselves,\n  And the aged arose and remained standing.\n\nCCXLVI\n\n  Princes desisted from talking,\n  And laid their hands upon their mouths;\n  For the ear heard me and blessed,\n  The eye saw me and bore me witness.\n\nCCXLVII\n\n  For I delivered the poor that cried aloud,\n  And the orphan and him that had none to help him;\n  The blessing of him that was perishing came upon me,\n  And I gladdened the heart of the widow.\n\nCCXLVIII\n\n  I put on righteousness and it clothed me;\n  My judgment was as a robe and a diadem.\n  I became eyes to the blind,\n  And I was feet unto the lame.\n\nCCXLIX\n\n  I was a father to the poor,\n  And the cause which I knew not I searched out;\n  And I brake the grinders of the wicked.\n  And plucked the spoil out of his teeth.\n\nCCL\n\n  Unto me men gave ear and waited,\n  And kept silence at my counsel.\n  After my words they spake not again,\n  And my speech fell upon them as a shower.\n\nCCLI\n\n  But now they laugh me to scorn,\n  Shepherd boys approach me with insolence,\n  Whose fathers I would not have deigned\n  To set with the dogs of my flock.\n\nCCLII\n\n  Yea, what booted me the strength of their hands?\n  Pity upon them was thrown away.\n  They were children of fools, yea, men of no name,\n  They were driven forth from the land.\n\nCCLIII\n\n  And now I am become the song of these!\n  Yea, I am become their byword!\n  They loathe me, they flee far from me,\n  And withhold not spittle from my face.\n\nCCLIV\n\n  For he hath dissolved my dignity and humbled me,\n  And he hath taken away my renown.\n  He hath opened a way to my miseries;\n  They enter and no one helpeth me.\n\nCCLV\n\n  With rumbling and booming they bounded along;\n  Terrors are turned upon me;\n  Thou scatterest my dignity, as with a wind,\n  And my welfare passeth as a cloud.\n\nCCLVI\n\n  The night gnaws away my bones,\n  And my devourers need no repose;\n  By swellings is my garment misshapen,\n  And I am grown like unto dust and ashes.\n\nCCLVII\n\n  I cry and thou hearest me not,\n  Thou art become ruthless towards me;\n  With the strength of thy hand thou assailest me,\n  And thou meltest my salvation away.\n\nCCLVIII\n\n  For I know that thou wilt bring me to death,\n  And to the house appointed for all living.\n  But shall not a drowning man stretch out his hand?\n  Shall he not cry out in his destruction?\n\nCCLIX\n\n  Did I not weep for him that was in trouble?\n  Was not my soul grieved for the needy?\n  I looked for good and waited for light;\n  Behold days of sorrowing are come upon me.\n\nCCLX\n\n  I go mourning without sun;\n  I stand up in the assembly and cry aloud;\n  I am become a brother unto jackals,\n  And a comrade unto ostriches.\n\nCCLXI\n\n  My skin hath grown black upon me\n  And my bones are scorched with heat;\n  My harp is turned to mourning,\n  And my bagpipe into the wail of the weeping.[246]\n\nCCLXII\n\n  If I have walked with men of wickedness,\n  Or if my feet have hastened to deceit,\n  Let him weigh me in balances of justice,\n  That God may know mine integrity!\n\nCCLXIII\n\n  If my steps have swerved from the way,\n  And mine heart followed in the wake of mine eyes,\n  Let me now sow and another eat,\n  Yea, let my garden be rooted out!\n\nCCLXIV\n\n  If mine heart have been deceived by a woman,\n  Or if I have lain in wait at my neighbour's door,\n  Then let my wife turn the mill unto another\n  And let others bow down upon her!\n\nCCLXV\n\n  For adultery is a grievous crime,\n  Yea, a crime to be punished by the judges:\n  It is a fire that consumeth to utter destruction,\n  And would root out all mine increase.\n\nCCLXVI\n\n  Had I despised the right of my man-servant\n  Or of my maidservant, when they contended with me,\n  What could I do, when God rose up?\n  And when he visiteth, what could I answer him?\n\nCCLXVII\n\n  For perdition from God was a terror to me,\n  And for his highness' sake I could not do such things.\n  Did not he that made me in the womb, make him?[247]\n  And did he not fashion us in one belly?\n\nCCLXVIII\n\n  Never have I withheld the poor from their desire,\n  Nor caused the widow's eyes to fail;\n  Nor have I eaten my morsel alone,\n  Unless the fatherless had partaken thereof.\n\nCCLXIX\n\n  If I saw one perish for lack of clothing,\n  Or any of the poor devoid of covering;\n  Then surely did his loins bless me,\n  And he was warmed with the fleece of my sheep.\n\nCCLXX\n\n  If I lifted up my hand against the fatherless,\n  When I saw my backers in the gate,[248]\n  Then let my shoulder fall from its setting,\n  And mine arm from its channel bone!\n\nCCLXXI\n\n  I have never made gold my hope,\n  Nor said to the fine gold: \"Thou art my trust;\"\n  Never did I rejoice that my wealth was great,\n  And because mine hand had found much.\n\nCCLXXII\n\n  Never did I gaze upon the sun, because it shone brightly,\n  Nor upon the moon floating in glory,\n  So that my heart was secretly enticed,\n  And I wafted kisses to them, putting my hand to my mouth.[249]\n\nCCLXXIII\n\n  Never did I rejoice at the ruin of my hater,\n  Nor exult when misery found him out;\n  Neither have I suffered my throat to sin,\n  By wreaking a curse upon his soul.\n\nCCLXXIV\n\n  Never had the guests of my tent to say:\n  \"Oh, that we had our fill of his meat!\"\n  I suffered not the stranger to lodge out of doors,\n  But I opened my gates to the traveller.\n\nCCLXXV\n\n  I covered not my failings after the manner of men,\n  By locking mine iniquity in my bosom,\n  As if I feared the vast multitude,\n  Or because the scorn of families[250] appalled me.\n\nCCLXXVI\n\n  And I, forsooth, should keep silence, should not come forward!\n  Oh, that one would hear me!\n  Here is my signature; let the Almighty answer me,\n  And hear the indictment which my adversary hath written![251]\n\nCCLXXVII\n\n  Surely I would hoist it upon my shoulder,\n  And weave it as a crown unto myself;\n  I would account to him for the number of my steps;\n  As a prince would I draw near unto him.\n\nCCLXXVIII\n\nJAHVEH:\n\n  Who is this that darkeneth my counsel,\n  With words devoid of knowledge?\n  Now gird up thy loins like a man,\n  For I shall ask of thee, and do thou teach me!\n\nCCLXXIX\n\n  When I laid the earth's foundation where wast thou?\n  Declare, if thou hast understanding!\n  Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest,\n  Or who hath stretched the line upon it?\n\nCCLXXX\n\n  Where are its sockets sunk down,\n  Or who laid the corner-stone thereof?\n  When the morning stars exulted together,\n  And all the sons of God shouted for joy.\n\nCCLXXXI\n\n  Who shut in the sea with doors,\n  When it brake forth as issuing from the womb?\n  When I made the clouds its garment,\n  And thick darkness for its swaddling-band.\n\nCCLXXXII\n\n  Then I brake up for it its appointed place,\n  And set it bars and portals,\n  And said: \"Hitherto shalt thou come,\n  And here shall thy haughty waves be stayed!\"\n\nCCLXXXIII\n\n  Was it at thy prompting that I commanded the morning,\n  And caused the dawn to know its place?\n  That it might seize hold of the ends of the earth,\n  That the wicked might be shaken out?[252]\n\nCCLXXXIV\n\n  Then the earth changes as clay under the seal,\n  And all things appear therein as an embroidery;[253]\n  But from the wicked is withholden their hiding-place,\n  And the raised arm shall be shattered.\n\nCCLXXXV\n\n  Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?\n  Or hast thou walked in search of the abysses?\n  Have the gates of death been opened unto thee,\n  Or hast thou seen the doors of darkness?\n\nCCLXXXVI\n\n  Hast thou surveyed the breadth of the earth?\n  Declare, if thou knowest, its measure!\n  Thou must needs know it, for then wast thou already born,\n  And great is the number of thy days!\n\nCCLXXXVII\n\n  Which way leadeth to the dwelling of light?\n  And of darkness, where is the abode?\n  That thou shouldst take it to its bounds,\n  And that thou shouldst know the paths to its house?\n\nCCLXXXVIII\n\n  Hast thou entered into the granaries of the snow,\n  Or hast thou seen the arsenals of the hail,\n  Which I have laid up for the time of trouble,\n  Against the day of battle and of war?\n\nCCLXXXIX\n\n  By what way is the mist parted?\n  And the east wind scattered upon the earth?\n  Who hath divided its course for the rain-storm?\n  And its path for the lightning of thunder?\n\nCCXC\n\n  Out of whose womb issued the ice?\n  And who gendered the hoar-frost of heaven?\n  The waters are as stone,\n  And the face of the deep condensed like clots together.\n\nCCXCI\n\n  Canst thou bind the knots of the Pleiads,\n  Or loose the fetters of Orion?\n  Canst thou send lightnings that they may speed,\n  And say unto thee: Here we are?\n\nCCXCII\n\n  Who in his wisdom can number the clouds,\n  Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,\n  That the dust may thicken into mire,\n  And the clods cleave close together?\n\nCCXCII\n\n  Canst thou hunt its prey for the lion,\n  Or sate the appetite of the young lions,\n  When they couch in their dens,\n  And abide in the covert to lie in wait?\n\nCCXCIV\n\n  Who provideth his food for the raven,\n  When his young ones cry unto God?\n  It hovereth around nor groweth weary,\n  Seeking food for its nestlings.\n\nCCXCV\n\n  Canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?\n  Canst thou number the months when they bring forth?\n  They cast out their burdens,\n  Their little ones grow up out of doors.\n\nCCXCVI\n\n  Who hath sent out the wild ass free,\n  Whose dwelling I have made the wilderness,\n  Who scorneth the noise of the city,\n  Nor heedeth the driver's cry?\n\nCCXCVII\n\n  Will the wild ox be willing to serve thee,\n  Or abide by thy grip?\n  Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great,\n  Or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?\n\nCCXCVIII\n\n  Dost thou bestow might upon the horse?\n  Dost thou clothe his neck with a waving mane?\n  Dost thou make him to bound like a locust,\n  In the pride of his terrible snort?\n\nCCXCIX\n\n  He paws in the vale and rejoices;\n  Goes with strength to encounter the weapons;\n  He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed,\n  And recoileth not from the sword.\n\nCCC\n\n  The quiver clangs upon him,\n  The flashing lance and the javelin;\n  Furiously bounding, he swallows the ground,\n  And cannot be reined in at the trumpet-blast.\n\nCCCI\n\n  When the clarion soundeth he crieth, \"Aha!\"\n  And sniffs the dust raised by the hosts from afar;\n  He dasheth into the thick of the fray,\n  Into the captains' shouting and the roar of battle.\n\nCCCII\n\n  Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,\n  And spread her pinions towards the south?\n  She builds her nest on high, dwelling on the rock,\n  And abideth there, seeking prey.\n\nCCCIII\n\n  Will the caviller still contend with the Almighty?\n  He that reproves God, let him answer!\n  Wilt thou even disannul my judgment?\n  Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayst be in the right?\n\nCCCIV\n\n  If thou hast an arm like God,\n  If thou canst thunder with a voice like his,\n  Deck thyself now with majesty and grandeur\n  And array thyself in glory and splendour!\n\nCCCV\n\n  Scatter abroad the rage of thy wrath,\n  And hurl down all that is exalted!\n  The haughty bring low by a glance,\n  And trample down the wicked in their place!\n\nCCCVI\n\n  Hide them together in the dust,\n  And bind their faces in secret!\n  Then will I, too, confess unto thee\n  That thine own right hand can save thee!\n\nCCCVII\n\nJOB:\n\n  Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee?\n  I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.\n  Once have I spoken, but I will do so no more,\n  Yea, twice, but I will proceed no further.\n\nCCCVIII\n\n  I know that thou canst do everything,\n  And that nothing is beyond thy reach;\n  Hence I say: I have uttered that I understand not,\n  Things too wonderful for me, which I know not.\n\nCCCIX\n\n  I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,\n  But now mine eye hath beheld thee;\n  Therefore I resign and console myself,\n  Though in dust and ashes.\n\n\nEPILOGUE\n\nCHAP. XLII. A.V.]\n\n7\u00b6 _And if was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job,\nthe Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee,\nand against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me_ the thing\nthat is_ right, as my servant Job_ hath.\n\n8 _Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to\nmy servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my\nservant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with\nyou_ after your _folly, in that ye have not spoken of me_ the\nthing which is _right, like my servant Job._\n\n9 _So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the\nNaamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord\nalso accepted Job._\n\n10 _And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his\nfriends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before._\n\n11 _Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and\nall they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with\nhim in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the\nevil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece\nof money, and every one an earring of gold._\n\n12 _So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning:\nfor he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a\nthousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses_.\n\n13 _He had also seven sons and three daughters_.\n\n14 _And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the\nsecond, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch_.\n\n15 _And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of\nJob: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren_.\n\n16 _After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons,\nand his sons' sons, even four generations_.\n\n17 _So Job died, being old and full of days_.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[196] _I.e._, the magicians by means of incantations.\n\n[197] Allusion to the Satan's remark in the Prologue, chap. i. to: \"Hast\n    not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all\n    that he hath on every side?\"\n\n[198] The strophe which follows in Prof. Bickell's text I consider a\n    later insertion, and have therefore struck it out. It runs thus:\n\n      \"The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,\n      And the teeth of the young lions are broken;\n      The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,\n      And the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.\"\n\n[199] The prophetic vision which Eliphaz now describes is relied upon by\n    him as the sanction for his whole discourse. To his seeming, it is a\n    direct revelation from God.\n\n[200] The sons of God, sons of the Elohim. _Cf._ Genesis vi. 4. There is\n    no analogy between these sons of God and the angels or saints of\n    Christianity. _Cf._ also Prof. Cheyne, \"Job and Solomon,\" p. 81:\n    Baudissin, Studien, II.\n\n[201] The human body is likened to a tent of which the tent-pole is the\n    breath of life; this gone, all that remains is the natural prey\n    of the elements.\n\n[202] Calumny.\n\n[203] Allusion to his sufferings at night from elephantiasis. This\n    terrible malady, which was first described by Rhazes, in the ninth\n    century, under the name _d\u00e2-l-f\u00eel_ (\"disease of the elephant\"), was\n    for a long time erroneously believed to be confined to Arabia. As a\n    matter of fact, it is found in an endemic state in all warm\n    countries, and sporadically even in Europe. In tropical and\n    sub-tropical lands it progresses with alarming rapidity. Every new\n    crisis is preceded by a shivering sensation and violent fever,\n    frequently accompanied with headache, delirium, and nervous and\n    gastric suffering. A violent attack of this kind may last seven or\n    eight days. The seat of the disease is generally the foot or the\n    reproductive organs. In the former case the foot swells to a\n    monstrous size, instep, toes and heel and ankle all merging in one\n    dense mass that reminds one of the foot of an elephant.\n\n[204] Job feels that death is nigh.\n\n[205] Allusion to an ocean myth. A watch had to be set upon the movements\n    of the monsters of the sea and the firmament.\n\n[206] The irony of these words addressed by Job to Jehovah would be\n    deemed blasphemous in a poet like Byron or Shelley. As a matter of\n    fact, they constitute a parody of Psalm viii. 5. as Prof. Cheyne has\n    already pointed out (\"Job and Solomon\").\n\n[207] The firmament, being a solid mass, has paths cut out along which\n    the stars move in their courses, just as there are channels made\n    for the clouds and rain.\n\n[208] This entire speech is ironical.\n\n[209] Allusion to a myth.\n\n[210] In the light of my own conscience I am not an evil-doer.\n\n[211] Ironical.\n\n[212] _Lit_., the man of lips.\n\n[213] Wisdom.\n\n[214] _I.e_., God's wisdom enables him to discern the deceit of those who\n    appear just, and the punishment which he deals out to them makes the\n    result of his knowledge visible to the dullest comprehension.\n\n[215] A name for God.\n\n[216] The current versions of the Bible make Job say the contrary: \"With\n    the ancient _is_ wisdom; and in length of days understanding\" (Job\n    xii. 12, Authorised Version). _Cf. ante_, \"Interpolations.\"\n\n[217] _I.e_., Will ye persist in maintaining that God rewards the good\n    and punishes the wicked (as Zophar has just done, strophe xcvii.) in\n    spite of the fact that ye know it is untrue?\n\n[218] _I.e_., not on grounds obvious to all, but because your own\n    particular lot is satisfactory.\n\n[219] Compare this with the extraordinary verse in our Authorised\n    Version: \"Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet\"! (Job\n    ii. 27).\n\n[220] This is one of the very few passages in the Poem which throw light\n    upon the date of its composition.\n\n[221] _I.e_., the object for which he bartered righteousness.\n\n[222] Host of evils which has attacked me from all sides.\n\n[223] Ironical.\n\n[224] An allusion to the promises made by the friends on the part of God\n    that Job would, if he repented and asked for pardon, recover his\n    former prosperity.\n\n[225] _Lit_., the pieces of his skin.\n\n[226] Probably an allusion to elephantiasis.\n\n[227] The personification of death.\n\n[228] Either \"the sons of the womb which has borne me,\" as in iii. 10, or\n    else \"my own children,\" the poet forgetting that in the prologue\n    they are described as having been killed.\n\n[229] _I.e_., when it is too late.\n\n[230] Zophar discerns perfect moral order in the world.\n\n[231] God.\n\n[232] _I.e_., by man.\n\n[233] _I.e_., be silent.\n\n[234] Job's ideal of a happy death was identical with that of Julius\n    Caesar--the most sudden and least foreseen.\n\n[235] Literally, \"his.\"\n\n[236] _I.e_., after his death.\n\n[237] _I.e._, God.\n\n[238] Ironical.\n\n[239] If there be a God who rules the world, punishes evil, and rewards\n    good, how comes it that we descry no signs of such just retribution?\n\n[240] About seven strophes in the same quasi-impious strain,\n    characterising the real reign of Jehovah upon earth as\n    distinguished from the optimistic delineations of Job's friends,\n    are lost. The verses that have taken their place in our\n    manuscripts are portions of a different work, which has no\n    relation whatever to our poem. They are not even in the same\n    metre as Job, but contain strophes of three lines only.\n\n[241] Conjecture of Professor Bickell; these two lines are not found in\n    the MSS.\n\n[242] I will judge ye out of your own mouths. Ye maintained, all of you,\n    that the principles on which the world is governed are absolutely\n    unintelligible. How then can ye reason as if the moral order were\n    based upon retribution, and from my sufferings infer my sins?\n\n[243] The miner who descends into the abyss of the earth, and carries a\n    lamp.\n\n[244] Wisdom is here identified with God, of whom we know nothing and\n    have only vaguely heard from those who knew less, i.e., former\n    generations, for whom Job has scant respect.\n\n[245] To mete out justice.\n\n[246] Two strophes are wanting here, in which Job presumably says that\n    this great change of fortune is not the result of his conduct.\n    The LXX offers nothing here in lieu of the lost verses; but the\n    Massoretic text has the strophes which occur in the Authorised\n    Version (xxxi. 1-4), and which would seem to have been\n    substituted for the original verses. The present Hebrew text is\n    useless here. If the four Massoretic verses which it offers had\n    stood in the original, so important are they that they would\n    never have been omitted by the Greek translators, who evidently\n    did not possess them in their texts. They remind one to some\n    extent of certain passages of the Sermon on the Mount, and are\n    manifestly of late origin.\n\n[247] _I.e._, my servant.\n\n[248] The concourse of people and partisans at the gate where justice was\n    administered.\n\n[249] _I.e._, I never adored them as gods.\n\n[250] Of the nobles.\n\n[251] This is the passage become famous in the imaginary form: \"That mine\n    adversary had written a book!\" (xxxi. 35).\n\n[252] Daylight is hostile to criminals, and the manner in which it\n    operates is here compared to a tossing of them off the outspread\n    carpet of the earth.\n\n[253] On a carpet, to which the earth is still compared.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE SPEAKER\n\nTRANSLATION OF THE RESTORED TEXT\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE  SPEAKER\n\nPART  I\n\nI. THESIS: _Vanity of the so-called Absolute Joys of Living._\n\nI 1.[254] The words of the Speaker, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.\n\n2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Speaker, vanity of vanities: all is\nvanity.\n\n3. What profit hath man of all his toil wherewith he wearies himself\nunder the sun?\n\n4. One generation passeth away and another cometh; the earth alone\nabideth for ever.\n\n5. The sun riseth and the sun goeth down and panting hasteneth back to\nhis place where he rose.\n\n6. The wind sweepeth towards the south and veereth round to the north,\nwhirling about everlastingly; and back to his circuits returneth the\nwind.\n\n7. All rivers flow into the sea; yet the sea is not full; whence the\nrivers take their source, thither they return again.\n\n      8. The all is in a never-ceasing whirl,\n         No man can utter it in words;\n         Rest is not vouchsafed to the eye from seeing,\n         Nor unto the ear from hearing.[255]\n\n9. The thing that hath been is the same that shall be, and what befell is\nthe same that shall come to pass, and there is no new thing under the\nsun. 10. If aught there be whereof one would say, \"Lo, this is new!\"--it\nwas erstwhile in the eternities that were before us.[256]\n\n11. There is no memory of those that were; neither shall there be any\nremembrance of them that are to come, among their posterity.\n\n12. I, the Speaker, was king over Israel in Jerusalem, 13. and I set my\nheart to seek out and probe with wisdom all things that are done under\nheaven. 14. I surveyed all the works that are wrought under the sun, and\nbehold all was vanity and the grasping of wind.\n\n     15. That which is crooked cannot be straight,\n         Nor can loss be reckoned as gain.\n\n16_a_. I communed with my heart, saying: Lo, I have gathered great\nand ever-increasing wisdom, more than all that were before me in\nJerusalem. 17. Then I set my heart to learn wisdom and understanding.\n16_b_. And my heart discerned much wisdom and knowledge, 17. madness\nand folly. I realised that this also is but a grasping of wind. 18. For\n\n  In much wisdom is much grief;\n  Who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.\n\n   II.1. I said in my heart: Go to, now, I will try mirth\n         and taste pleasure! But behold, this too was\n         vanity.\n\n      2. Unto laughter I said: It is mad.\n         Unto mirth: What cometh of it?\n\n\nPROOFS OF THE VANITY OF POSSESSION AND ENJOYMENT\n\n_(a) Because Enjoyment is Marred by Possession_\n\nII. 3. I cast about me, how I might confer pleasure upon my body--my\nreason continuing to guide with wisdom the while--and how I might take to\nfolly till I should discern what is good for the sons of men that they\nshould do under heaven during the brief days of their existence. 4. I\nundertook huge works, I builded me houses, cultivated vineyards, 5. laid\nout gardens and orchards wherein I planted trees with all kinds of\nfruits; 6. I dug out reservoirs of water wherewith to water the\ntree-bearing wood. 7. I got me men slaves and female slaves and had\nservants born in my house; I likewise owned horned and small cattle,\nabove all that were in Jerusalem before me. 8. I also piled up silver and\ngold, the treasures of kings and provinces, I got me men singers and\nwomen singers, and the delight of the sons of men, wife and wives.  9.\nAnd I waxed great and increased more than all that had been before me in\nJerusalem; also my wisdom abode with me.  10. And what thing so ever mine\neyes coveted, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy;\nbut my heart took pleasure in all my labour, for this only was my portion\nof all my toil.\n\nII. Then I turned to all my works that my hands had wrought and to the\nworry wherewith I had wearied myself, and behold, all was vanity and a\ngrasping of wind; and there is no profit under the sun.\n\n   V.10. Whoso loveth silver shall not have joy of silver;[257]\n         And he who sets his heart on riches reaps nought therefrom.\n\nThis too is vanity.\n\n11. When goods increase, they also are multiplied that devour them, and\nwhat profit hath the owner thereof save the gazing thereon with his eyes?\n\n12. Sweet is the sleep of the toiler; but his wealth suffered not the\nrich man to slumber.[258]\n\n_(b) Because Possession is at best but Fleeting_\n\nV. 13. There is a sore evil which I have witnessed under the sun; riches\nhoarded up by the owner thereof to his own undoing.[259] [For such an one\ntreasures them, spending thereby all his days in worry, vexation, grief,\nand carking care without gladdening his soul;] 14. then the riches perish\nby evil mishap, and if that man have begotten a son, there is nothing in\nhis hand.\n\n16_a_. But this likewise is a sore evil: exactly as he came, even so\nshall he go; 15. naked, as he issued from his mother's womb, must he\ndepart again, nor for all his labour shall he carry away aught that might\ngo with him in his hand. 16_b_. What profit hath he then for having\ntoiled for the wind, 17. and likewise passed all his days in darkness,\nmourning and much grief, suffering and wrath?\n\n_(c) Because the Capacity for Pleasure is hedged round with\nConditions_\n\nV. 18. Behold what I have found to be good and beautiful: that a man eat,\ndrink and make merry amid all his labour whereat he striveth under the\nsun during the brief days of his life which God hath allotted to him; for\nsuch is his portion. 19. But that God should enable every man on whom he\nhas bestowed riches and treasures, to enjoy these, and taking his share,\nto have pleasure in his labour, this is itself a gift of God.[260] 20.\nFor then he shall not ponder overmuch on the days of his life, since God\napproveth the joy of his heart.\n\nVI. 1. But there is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it\nweighs heavy upon men: 2. that God bestows upon one riches, wealth and\nhonour, grudging him nought for which his soul yearns, yet permitteth him\nnot to taste thereof, but a stranger enjoyeth it. This is vanity and a\nsore evil. 3. If such an one should beget even a hundred sons and live\nmany years, but his soul could not revel in bliss then I say, an untimely\nbirth is better off than he. 4. For it came into nothingness, and\ndeparted in gloom and its name is shrouded in darkness; 3. not even a\nsepulchre fell to its lot; 5. moreover, it had not gazed upon, nor known\nthe sun; this latter hath more rest than the former. 6. Yea, though one\nlived a thousand years twice told, yet had not tasted happiness, must not\nall wander into one place?[261]\n\n      7. All man's toil is for his mouth;\n         And yet the soul[262]\n         gets not its fill.\n\nIII. 9. What profit hath the toiler from that whereat he labours? 12. I\nperceived that for him there is no good other than to eat, drink, and\nmake merry in his life; 13. but even this same that any one may eat,\ndrink, and enjoy himself during all his toil, is for him a gift of\nGod.[263]\n\n\nPROOFS OF THE VANITY OF KNOWLEDGE\n\n(a) _Because of its Limitation_\n\nIII. 10. I considered the working of the world which God gave unto man as\na subject of meditation. 11. Unto their perception he made over the\nuniverse and likewise all eternity; yet so that they are unable to\ndiscern the work that he worketh from the beginning unto the end.[264]\n\n(6) _From its Depressing Effects as Applied to the Order of the\nWorld_\n\nIII. 14. I discovered that whatever God doeth is for ever; nothing can be\nsuperadded to it, neither can aught be taken away; and God hath so\ncontrived it that man must fear him.\n\n15. What came into being had been already long before, and what will be\nwas long ago; and God quickeneth the past.\n\n(c) _Because of its Depressing Effects as Applied to Human Life and\nConduct_\n\nIII. 16. Moreover, I saw, under the sun, in the place of equity iniquity,\nand in lieu of justice crime. 18. I said in mine heart: It is for men's\nsake that God should try them and show that they are beasts, they unto\nthemselves. 19. For men are an accident, and the beasts are an accident,\nand the same accident befalleth them all: as these die even so die those,\nand the selfsame breath have they all, nor is there any pre-eminence of\nman above beast;[265] for all is nothingness. 20. All drift into one\nplace; all sprang from the dust, and all turn to dust again. 21. Who\nknoweth whether the breath of man riseth upwards or whether the breath of\nthe beast sinketh downwards to the earth?\n\n22. And I perceived that other good there is none, save only that man\nshould enjoy himself in his work; for that is his portion. For who can\nshow him what shall become of him after his death?\n\nIV. I. And again I saw all the oppressive deeds that are wrought under\nthe sun; and behold the downtrodden weep, and none comforteth them; and\nthey endure violence from their tyrants, and none consoleth them. 2. Then\nI appraised the dead who died long since, as happier than the quick who\nare yet alive; 3. but luckier than both, him who is still unborn, who\nhath not yet witnessed the evil doings under the sun.\n\n4. And I saw that all striving and all painstaking in the working of men\nis but the jealousy of one with another; this too is vanity and the\ngrasping of wind. 5. True,\n\n  The fool foldeth his hands,\n  And eateth up his own flesh.\n\n6. And yet better is a handful of quietness than both fists filled with\ndrudgery and the grasping of wind.\n\n7. And again I beheld a vain thing under the sun: 8. one who toileth\nrestlessly without enjoying his riches. For whom do I wear myself out and\nbereave my soul of pleasure? This too is vanity and irksome drudgery.\n\nII. 12. For what manner of man will he be who shall come after me? 18.\nThen I loathed all my toil, wherewith I had wearied myself under the sun,\nin order that I should leave it to one who shall come after me. 19. And\nwho knoweth whether he be a wise man or a fool? Yet shall he have sway\nover all the fruits of my labour which I have gained by toil and wisdom\nunder the sun; this likewise is vanity. 20. And I turned away to let my\nheart abandon itself to despair because of the pains wherewith I laboured\nunder the sun. 21. For here is a man who hath performed his work with\nwisdom, knowledge and painstaking, and to one who hath not laboured\nthereat he must leave it, as his portion. This also is vanity and a sore\nevil.\n\n22. For what hath man of all his striving and of the worry of his heart\nwherewith he labours under the sun? 23. For all his days are sorrows and\nhis work grief; yea, even at night his heart taketh no rest; this too is\nvanity.\n\n24. There is no good for man, save that he should eat and drink and make\nglad his soul in his labour. Yet I saw that even this lieth in the hand\nof God.[266] 25. For who can eat and who can enjoy except through him?\n26. For on the man who findeth favour in his sight he bestoweth wisdom,\nknowledge, and joy; but to him who is not pleasing in his sight[267] he\ngiveth drudgery, to gather and to heap up in order to make it over to him\nin whom he is well pleased. This also is vanity and a grasping of wind.\n\n\nPROOFS OF THE VANITY OF WISDOM IN ITS RELIGIOUS AND MORAL ASPECTS[268]\n\n_(a) Because in the Chances of Life and Death the Just are Nowise\nFavoured_\n\nII. 12_a_. Then I turned to behold wisdom, madness and folly, 13.\nand I saw that wisdom excelleth folly as much as light surpasseth\ndarkness:\n\n     14. The wise man hath eyes in his head;\n         But the fool walketh in obscurity.\n\nBut I perceived that the same fate overtaketh them all. 15. Then I said\nin mine heart: As it happeneth to the fool, so shall it happen also unto\nme; and why then have I been so very wise? Whereupon I said in my heart\nthat this too is vanity. 16. For there is no more remembrance of the wise\nman than of the fool for ever; because in the days to come all shall have\nbeen long since forgotten, and how the wise man perisheth like the fool!\n\n17. Then I loathed life; because the turmoil under the sun weighed upon\nme as a calamity, for all is vanity and a grasping of wind. III. 1. To\neverything there is a season and each thing under heaven hath its\nhour.[269] 2. There is a time to be born and a time to die; a time to\nplant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3. a time to kill and\na time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up; 4. a time to\nweep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; 5. a time\nto cast away stones and a time to gather stones together; a time to\nembrace and a time to refrain from embracing; 6. a time to seek and a\ntime to throw away; a time to keep and a time to destroy; 7. a time to\nrend and a time to repair; a time to be silent and a time to speak; 8. a\ntime to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace. VIII.\n6. For every thing hath its season and its destiny,[270] for the bane of\nman presses heavily upon him. 7. Because he knoweth not what shall be;\nfor who can tell him how it will come to pass?\n\n      8. No man swayeth the storm-wind,\n         None controlleth the day of his death;\n         There is no discharge in war,\n         Nor can riches rescue their possessor.\n\n_(b) Because the Just are very often Treated worse than the Wicked_\n\nVIII. 9. All this have I seen, and I have applied my heart unto every\nevent that happens under the sun, at the time when one man ruleth over\nanother to his undoing. 10. And so I beheld the evil-doer honoured, even\nin the holy place, while they who had done uprightly must go away and\nwere forgotten in the city. This also is vanity.\n\n11. Because sentence against misdeeds is not executed forthwith,\ntherefore the heart of the sons of man is fully set to work evil. 12. For\nI know that many a miscreant hath committed bad deeds for a protracted\ntime past, and yet lives long, 13. while the God-fearing prolongeth not\nhis shadow-like days.\n\n14. There is a vanity which is done upon earth: to righteous men that\nhappeneth which should befall wrong-doers; and that betideth criminals\nwhich should fall to the lot of the upright. I said: This too is vain.\n\n16a. When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to consider the goings on\nupon earth, 17a. then I perceived that no man can find out the whole work\nof God that is carried on beneath the sun.[271]  How much soever he may\nlabour in seeking, he will not discover it; 16_b_. even though by\nday and by night he should keep his eyes from seeing sleep; 17_b_.\nyea, though a wise man set himself to fathom it, yet shall he not find it\nout.[272]\n\nIX. 1. For all this I laid to heart, and my heart beheld it all; that the\nrighteous and the wise and their doings are in the hand of God; neither\nlove nor hatred doth a man know in advance;[273] everything lies before\nhim.\n\n2. All things come alike to all indiscriminately;[274] the one fate\novertaketh the upright man and the miscreant, the clean and the unclean,\nhim who sacrifices and him who sacrifices not, the just and the sinner,\nhim who swears as him who dreads an oath. 3. This is an evil amongst all\nthings that are done under the sun, that one chance betideth all;\ntherefore the sons of men pluck up courage for evil, and madness abideth\nin their heart.\n\nVIII. 15. Then I commended mirth, because for man there is no good under\nthe sun save only to eat, drink, and make merry, and that abideth with\nhim in his toil during the days of his life which God hath given him\nunder the sun.\n\n\nPROOFS OF THE VANITY OF WISDOM IN ITS ASPECT AS PRUDENCE AND PRACTICAL\nAPTITUDE\n\n_(a) Because Success is Contingent upon Circumstances beyond the\nControl of Man_\n\nIX. 11. Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor\nthe battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of\nunderstanding, nor favour to men of skill; but time and chance overtake\nthem all. 12. For man knoweth not even his own time; like the fishes that\nare taken in the evil net, and like the birds that are caught in the\nsnare, so are the sons of men entrapped in the season of misfortune, when\nit breaks in upon them unawares.[275]\n\n_(b) Because of the Difficulty of obtaining recognition for it, and of\nthe Ease with which it may be Thwarted by Folly_\n\nIX. 13. This also have I seen under the sun, as wisdom, and it appeared\ngreat unto me. 14. There was a little city and few soldiers therein, and\nthere came a mighty king against it, and besieged it, and built great\nbulwarks against it. 15. Now he found in it a poor wise man who, by his\nwisdom, delivered the city; but no one remembered this poor man\nafterwards. 16. Thereupon I said:\n\n  Wisdom is better than strength;\n  Yet the poor man's wisdom is despised.\n\n     17. The words of the wise are gently uttered;\n         But the clamour of fools is deafening.[276]\n     18. Wisdom is better than war weapons;\n        Yet a single oversight bringeth ruin.\n   X. 1. A dead fly causes balsam to putrefy;\n        So a little folly destroys much happiness.\n\nVI. 8. For what hath the wise more than the fool? What, the poor who\nknoweth how to walk before the living? 10. That which is happening was\nlong ago named, and it is known beforehand what a man shall be; neither\ncan he join issue with him who is mightier than he. 11. For there is much\nprattle that only augmenteth vanity. Of what avail is it to man? 12. For\nwho knoweth what is helpful to man in life during the brief vain days of\nhis existence which he spendeth as a shadow? For who can tell a man what\nshall come to pass after him under the sun?\n\n\nPART II\n\nRECOMMENDATION OF THE RELATIVE GOOD; AND IN THE FIRST PLACE OF WISDOM, AS\nRENUNCIATION\n\n_(a) Of Claims to Happiness_\n\n  VII.1_a_. Better is a good name than choice unguents,\n\n    X.1. But better wisdom than glory;\n          [Better not being than existence,][277]\n\n  VII.1_b_. And the death-day than the birthday.\n\n      2. Better to enter the house of mourning\n         Than to go into the tavern;\n         Because there is the end of every man,\n         And he who survives will lay it to heart.\n\n      3. Better is sorrow than laughter;\n         For a cheerless face makes a blithesome heart.\n      4. The heart of the wise is in the mourning-house;\n         The heart of fools in the house of mirth.\n\n      5. Better to hearken to the rebuke of the wise,\n         Than to listen to the song of the foolish.\n      6. As the crackling of thorns under a pot,[278]\n         Is the inane laughter of the fool.\n\n   VI.9. Better look with the eyes than wander with desire;\n         This too is vanity and a grasping of wind.\n  VII.7. For extortion maketh the wise man foolish,\n          And bribery robs understanding.\n\n      8. Better the end of a thing than the beginning thereof;\n         Better is patience than haughtiness.\n      9. Let not thy spirit be hurried into anger,\n         For anger lurketh in the bosom of fools.\n\n10. Say not: Why were old times better than these? For it is not from\nwisdom that thou askest thus.\n\n13. Contemplate the work of God! Who can straighten what he hath made\ncrooked? 14. In the day of prosperity be of good cheer, and in the evil\nday bethink thee: the latter God hath made even as the former, to the end\nthat man at his death shall have left nothing unaccomplished.\n\n_(b) As Renunciation of Reputation for Perfect Justice and Wisdom_\n\nVII. 15. All things have I witnessed in my vain days; there are just men\nwho perish through their righteousness, and there are wicked men who\nprolong their lives by means of their iniquity.[279] 16. Be not righteous\novermuch, neither make thyself overwise; why wouldst thou ruin thyself?\n17. Do not allow thyself too much liberty, and be not a fool: why wouldst\nthou die before thy time? 18. It is well that thou shouldst hold fast to\nthe one and also not withdraw thy hand from the other, for he who feareth\nGod compasseth all this.\n\n19. Wisdom is a stronger guard for the wise man than ten mighty men who\nare in the city.\n\n     11. Wisdom is good with an inheritance,\n         Yea, better yet, to them that see the sun;[280]\n     12. For wisdom and wealth afford shade,\n         And wisdom, besides, keeps its possessors alive.\n\n_(c) As Renunciation of One's Claims to the Respect and Consideration\nof Others_\n\nVII. 21. Likewise, take not all the gossip of people to heart, lest thou\nhear that thy friend hath reviled thee! 22. For thy heart is conscious\nthat thou thyself hast often-times made little of others. 20. For:\n\n  There is no just man upon the earth\n  Who worketh good and never faileth.\n\n_(d) Of One's Claims to Act Independently of their Counsel and Aid_\n\nIV. 9. Two are better off than one; 10. for should one of them fall, the\nother lifts him up again. Woe to him that is alone, if he fall, and there\nbe not another to raise him up. 11. Likewise, if two lie down together,\nthey become warm; but how can one grow warm alone? 12. Moreover, if a man\nwould overpower the single one, two can keep him at bay, and a threefold\ncord will not easily give way.\n\n13. Better is the youth, needy and wise, than the king old and foolish,\nwho can no longer take a warning to heart. 14. For the former went forth\nfrom prison to govern, though born poor in the realm of the king. 15. I\nsaw all the living who walk under the sun, in attendance on the youth who\nwas to take his place. 16. There was no end to the multitude....[281] who\nwere before them; nor did those who lived afterwards glory in him. For\nthis likewise is vanity and a grasping of wind.\n\n\nRECOMMENDATION OF WISDOM AS RATIONAL PIETY[282]\n\n_A Warning: (a) Against Outward and Sacrificial Worship_\n\nV. 1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God! And to draw near\nhim, in order to obey, is better than the offering of sacrifices by\nfools: for they know not....[283] to work evil.\n\n_(b) Against Mechanical Prayer_\n\nV. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, nor let thy heart be hasty to utter\nwords before God! For God is in heaven, and thou art upon earth;\ntherefore let thy words be few! 3. For\n\n  Dreams proceed from much brooding,\n  And the prattle of fools from a multitude of words.\n\n_(c) Against Rash Vows_\n\nV. 4. If thou makest a vow unto God, fail not to fulfil it, for fools are\ndispleasing. Carry out that which thou hast promised. 5. It is better\nthou shouldst not vow at all than vow and not perform. 6. Suffer not thy\nmouth to render thy body punishable, neither utter thou the plea before\nthe messenger:[284] \"it was rashness.\" Why cause God to be wroth at thy\nvoice and destroy the work of thy hands?\n\n_(d) Against Arbitrary Religious Speculations_\n\nV. 7....[285] For in the multitude of fancies and prattle there likewise\nlurketh much vanity. Rather fear thou God!\n\n\nRECOMMENDATION OF WISDOM AS ACTIVITY\n\n_(a) In Public Life_\n\nV. 8. When thou witnessest oppression of the poor and the swerving from\nright and equity in the land, marvel not thereat. For a higher one\nwatcheth over the high, and still higher ones over both.[286] 9. But a\ngain to the country is only a king--for tilled land.\n\n   X.16. Wo, land, to thee whose king is a child,\n         And whose princes feast in the early morning!\n     17. Hail to thee, land, whose king is noble,\n         And whose princes eat in due season!\n\n     18. Through sloth the rafters give way;\n         Through idleness the roof lets in the rain.\n     19. They misuse food and drink for feasting:\n         And gold putteth all things in their grasp.\n\n     20. Even in thy privacy curse not the king,\n         Nor in thy bed-chamber the wealthy;\n         The birds of heaven might divulge it,\n         And the feathered ones might report the word.\n\n_(b) In Private Life_\n\nXI. 1. Send forth thy bread over the surface of the waters, for after\nmany days thou shall find it again. 2. Divide thy possessions into seven,\nyea, into eight portions! For thou knowest not what evil may befall the\nland. 3. If the clouds fill themselves with rain, they discharge it upon\nthe earth; and whether the tree falleth towards the south or towards the\nnorth, in the place where it falleth, there shall it abide.\n\n      6. In the morning sow thy seed,\n         And until evening let not thy hand repose.[287]\n\nFor thou knowest not which one shall thrive, this or that, or whether\nthey shall both prosper alike.\n\n      4. He that observeth the wind shall not sow;\n         He that watcheth the clouds shall not reap.\n\n5. As thou knowest not the way of the wind, nor the growth of the bones\nin the womb of the mother, even so, thou canst not fathom the work of God\nwho compasseth everything.\n\n\nRECOMMENDATION OF WISDOM AS CIRCUMSPECTION\n\n_(a) In our Dealings with Women_\n\nVII. 23. All this have I tried with understanding; I was minded to\nacquire wisdom, but it remained far from me. 24. Far off is that which\nis,[288] and deep, deep; who can fathom it?\n\n25. I turned away, and my heart was bent upon understanding, sifting, and\nseeking the outgrowth of wisdom and knowledge, madness, and folly. 26.\nWhereupon I found that more bitter than death is woman--that snare whose\nheart is a net, whose arms are fetters: the God-favoured shall escape\nher, but the sinner shall be entangled by her.\n\n27. Lo, this have I found, saith the Speaker, piecing one thing with\nanother in order to discover a result: 28. What my soul hath ever sought\nfor, yet never fallen upon, is this: I have discovered one man, among\nthousands; and of all these there was not one single woman. 29. Behold,\nthis only have I found: that God made men upright, but they go in search\nof many wiles.\n\n_(b) In our Relations to the Monarch_\n\n  VIII.1. A man's wisdom brightens up his countenance.\n          And transforms the coarse rancour of his face.\n      2. The wise man hearkens to the king's command,\n         By reason of the oath to God.\n\n      3. Steer clear of evil causes![289]\n         For he[290] doeth even what he listeth.\n      4. Mighty is the word of the monarch;\n         Who dares ask him: \"What dost thou?\"[291]\n\n    X.2. The wise man's heart straineth to the right,\n         The heart of the fool to the left.\n      3. Even out of doors he lacketh sense,\n         Saying unto every one: \"I am a fool.\"[292]\n\n4. Though the wrath of the ruler should swell against thee, yet forsake\nnot thy post. For composure avoids grave mistakes.\n\n5. There is an evil which I beheld under the sun, like unto a blunder,\nproceeding from the ruler!\n\n      6. Folly is set in high places,\n         The great ones must sit low down;\n      7. Slaves have I beheld on horseback,\n         And princes trudging on foot.\n\n_(c) In the Conditions of Everyday Life_\n\nX. 8. He that diggeth a pit may fall into it; him who breaketh down walls\na serpent may sting. 9. Whoso removeth stones may be hurt therewith; he\nwho cleaveth wood may be endangered thereby.\n\n     10. If the axe be blunt it demands more strength:[293]\n         Only through intelligence doth exertion avail.\n     11. If the serpent bites before the spell,\n         Then bootless is the charmer's art.\n\n     12. Speech from the wise man's mouth is grace,\n         The lips of a fool swallow him up;\n     13. The first words of his mouth are folly.\n         And the end of his talk rank madness.\n\n  II.15. For in self-conceit babbles the fool,[294]\n   X.14_a_. The silly man multiplieth his words;\n     15. The fussiness of the fool jadeth him.\n         Who knows not yet the way citywards.[295]\n\n_Exhortation to enjoy Life_\n\nX. 14_b_. Man knoweth not what shall come to pass, and who can tell\nhim IX. 3. during his life, what shall befall after his death? Afterwards\nthey go down to the[296] [dead, and there none can tell him aught nor can\nhe apprehend anything. Even could he take it in, it would avail him\nnothing, for in _Sheol_ there is no participation in life]. 4. For\nwhosoever may enrol himself in the company of all the living, can rest\ncontent, seeing that a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5. For the\nliving know at least that they shall die, whereas the dead know not\nanything at all, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of\nthem is forgotten. 6. As well their love as their hatred and jealousy has\nlong since passed away, neither have they any more a portion for ever in\nanything that is done under the sun.\n\n      7. Go, eat thy bread with joy,\n         And quaff thy wine with merry heart.\n\nFor God hath countenanced beforehand this thy doing. 8. Let thy garments\nbe always white and let thy head lack not ointment. 9. See life with a\nwoman whom thou lovest throughout all the days of thy empty existence\nwhich he hath given thee under the sun, during all thy vain days! For\nthat is thy portion in life[297] and in thy labour which thou takest\nunder the sun. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do that with thy\nmight. For there is no work, nor cogitation, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in\nthe _Sheol_[298] whither thou goest. XI. 7. But sweet is the light\nand pleasant it is for the eyes to gaze upon the sun. 8. For how many\nyears soever a man may live, he should enjoy himself during them all, and\nbear in mind the days of darkness that they shall be many. Everything\nthat is to come, is vain.\n\n      9. Rejoice, young man, in thy youth![299]\n         And let thy heart make thee glad!\n         And walk in the ways of thine heart,\n         And according to the seeing of thine eyes!\n\n  _10a._ Drive sorrow from thy heart;\n         And put away care from thy flesh!\n  XII._1a._ And bethink thee of thy fountain,[300]\n         In the days of thy youth!\n\nXI. _10b._ For youth and dawn are fleeting.\n\n  XII._1b._ Dreary days are drawing near,\n         And years approach devoid of joy.\n      2. Then darkened shall be sun and moon,\n         And clouds come after rain alway.\n\n      3. The keepers of the house[301] shall quake,\n         The sturdy ones[302] shall bend themselves;\n         Darksome shall the windows[303] be,\n      4. And closed shall be the portals.[304]\n\n         The roar of the mill[305] shall be as the sparrows twitter,\n         The daughters of song[306] shall bow low;\n      5. Likewise of heights shall they be afraid,\n         For dread shall lie in wait.\n\n      3. The grinding maids[307] shall leave off work,\n      5. The almond-tree[308] shall shed its blooms;\n         The grasshopper[309] shall be burdened,\n         And the caperberry[310] unavailing.\n\nFor man goeth to his everlasting home and the mourners are in readiness\nin the street.\n\n      6. Asunder snaps the silver chain;\n         Shivered is the golden lamp;\n         The pitcher shattered at the brook;\n         The scoopwheel falls into the well.\n\n8. O Vanity of Vanities, saith the Speaker; all is vanity![311]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[254] For the convenience of the reader I give the chapters and verses as\n    they are in the ordinary Hebrew Bible, so that they can be found\n    at once in the Authorised Version. The letter _a_ after the\n    verse number indicates the first half of that verse, the letter\n    _b_ the second half.\n\n[255] The meaning is almost the opposite of that of the Authorised\n    Version. Eye and ear are wearied and bewildered by the incessant\n    whirl of the vast machinery of the universe. _Cf._\n    Schopenhauer, ed. Grisebach, vol. v. p. 295, \u00a7 144. The metre of\n    the strophe is identical with that of the \"Poem of Job.\"\n\n[256] It is interesting and instructive to compare this with the\n    identical doctrine of Buddha, as set forth in the canonical book,\n    \"Samyuttaka-Nikayo,\" vol. i. vii., 2 P, 2 Suttam. It is\n    accessible to most readers in the admirable German translation of\n    Dr. K. E. Neumann, Leiden, 1892. Pp. 156, 157.\n\n[257] The Authorised Version has \"shall not be satisfied with silver.\"\n    The meaning is that he who loves silver shall not enjoy the good\n    things it can purchase.\n\n[258] _I.e_., The care and anxiety which accompany the possession of\n    wealth. The Authorised Version has: \"The sleep of a labouring man\n    is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the\n    rich will not suffer him to sleep.\" The Hebrew word _saba'_\n    can signify both wealth and repletion. Here it manifestly means\n    the former; but some well-intentioned person whose ideas of\n    physiology were defective, having taken it to mean repletion,\n    confirmed his view by interpolating the words: \"whether he eat\n    little or much.\"\n\n[259] Here a portion of the original text has been lost, as is evident\n    from the passage beginning \"What profit,\" two sentences lower\n    down, which sums up the troubles of the rich man and makes them\n    consist not merely in the loss of what he actually possessed, but\n    likewise in the hardships and privations which he endured in\n    order to produce his wealth. I give in brackets the words which\n    Professor Bickell conjecturally supplies in lieu of the lost\n    passage.\n\n[260] And therefore extremely doubtful. When Koheleth wishes to express\n    the idea of inexorable law, or Fate, he has recourse to the\n    notion of God.\n\n[261] It is only on earth that one can hope for some approximation to\n    happiness. If we fail to obtain it here--and the odds are very\n    much against us--there is no hereafter to look forward to; for we\n    _all_--the miserable as well as the fortunate--are drifting\n    steadily into one place--the dreary _Sheol_, where there is\n    no pleasure, no striving, no life.\n\n[262] _I.e._, not merely, as commentators generally suppose, that\n    desire is not satiated; but that the enjoyment for the sake of\n    which alone we desire life, and toil to sustain it, is never\n    attained. The aim of labour is enjoyment, without which existence\n    is a burden; but the real result of it all is the mere support of\n    life without its redeeming pleasures. _Cf._ Schopenhauer,\n    vol. v. pp. 300, 301.\n\n[263] That is to say, is a very uncertain outlook.\n\n[264] This is a remarkable sentence, which, if it could be supposed to be\n    the fruit of the writer's own speculations, would entitle him to\n    a high place in the Pantheon of speculative philosophers. This\n    proposition, which underlies all Buddhistic doctrines, would be\n    formulated by Kant or Schopenhauer somewhat as follows: Time,\n    space, and causality are given to man as the _a priori_\n    conditions of all thought; they are the stuff his mind is made\n    of. As they are likewise the three ingredients of which the\n    universe is composed, it follows that the world is the web of his\n    own intellect, and, in so far as it is knowable, exists for the\n    intellect alone. That which underlies all the shadows of\n    existence, the one eternal force or will, he never beholds.\n\n[265] Schopenhauer would express it thus: Our sources of knowledge--inner\n    and outer observation--are identical with those of animals, the\n    difference consisting in that faculty of imparting to our\n    intuitions the form of abstract ideas.\n\n[266] That is to say, is highly uncertain; for, as we learn in the\n    following lines, happiness and misery depend upon chance or luck.\n    God gives his favourites an agreeable life, leaving the drudgery\n    to all the rest. And his choice is not determined by any ethical\n    acts of man.\n\n[267] \"Sinner\" is not the correct translation of the Hebrew word\n    _kh\u00f4te_ here; otherwise the author could not say that this\n    too (_i.e._, the punishment of the sinner) is vanity.\n\n[268] The Jews frequently give to piety and morality the name of wisdom.\n\n[269] The sense of this passage, which has become proverbial, is\n    generally misunderstood. What it means is that man's work, be he\n    never so skilful, be it never so easy, is absolutely dependent\n    for success upon conditions which are wholly beyond his control,\n    and that undertaken under any other conditions is inevitably\n    doomed to failure.\n\n[270] Here Professor Bickell supplies the words: \"Against this no man can\n    strive.\"\n\n[271] The utmost that physical science can teach us is the where, the\n    when and the why of the appearance of the forces of nature. The\n    _what_ remains for ever a mystery.\n\n[272] Wisdom here is taken to mean the one eternal reality which\n    underlies the shadowy appearances that we see and know. The same\n    use of the word and exactly the same thesis occur in Job.\n    (_Cf_. A.V. Job xxviii. 21, 22.)\n\n[273] He cannot answer even for his own sentiments, completely though\n    they may seem to be under his sway.\n\n[274] _I.e._, without ethical distinctions between the good and the\n    bad.\n\n[275] It is curious to note that a comparison strikingly similar to this\n    occurs in the ancient Indian collection of fables entitled\n    \"Pantschatantra.\" (Ed. Kosegarten, p. 105.)\n\n[276] Literally: tyrannical.\n\n[277] This line is no longer found in the Hebrew or Greek texts. It is\n    required, however, by the sense and metre, and is inserted by\n    Professor Bickell.\n\n[278] Here the Hebrew text contains a play of words which cannot be\n    reproduced in English.\n\n[279] \"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.\" (\"Measure for\n    Measure.\")\n\n[280] _I.e._, for mankind.\n\n[281] Here a portion of the text is evidently lost. Professor Bickell\n    suggests that it ran somewhat as follows: \"Who received him with\n    applause and reviled the old king. For inasmuch as he had spurned\n    the counsel of the wise, in order to misgovern and grind down the\n    people, therefore they hated him as those had hated him\" who were\n    before them.\n\n[282] As an antidote to the so-called \"piety\" founded upon the scrupulous\n    observance of the law, which had become a very Upas tree of\n    self-complacency. Mankind is already encompassed by so many and\n    such terrible evils, that it would be sheer madness to turn\n    religion into a means of multiplying them.\n\n[283] Another passage is wanting here, which most probably was to the\n    effect that they know not that God asks no sacrifices at their\n    hands but only works of justice; and that therefore they take\n    courage \"to work evil.\"\n\n[284] Various commentators have offered various explanations of this\n    obscure passage. As none of them is convincing, I prefer to leave\n    them unnoticed. It is not impossible that it may contain an\n    allusion to some popular tale or fable, analogous to that of the\n    man who called upon death in his despair, and when the grim\n    visitor made his appearance, asked him merely to help him to\n    carry his burden.\n\n[285] Professor Bickell supposes that here some words have fallen out,\n    such as: \"Brood not over that which is too marvellous and too\n    lofty for thee, neither say of the dreams of thy heart and the\n    babbling of thy lips, 'I have found the knowledge of the Holy\n    One.'\"\n\n[286] This passage is a bitterly ironical onslaught on bureaucracy.\n\n[287] This distich is rhymed in Hebrew.\n\n[288] What Kant would call _das Ding an sich_. Everything we see and\n    know is but appearance. The underlying substance, \"that which\n    is,\" is unknowable.\n\n[289] Political plots.\n\n[290] _I.e._, the king.\n\n[291] Ironical.\n\n[292] By his unconsidered acts.\n\n[293] Literally, \"it must be the more lustily wielded.\"\n\n[294] This line is found only in the Septuagint.\n\n[295] Probably a proverbial way of saying that a man knows nothing.\n\n[296] The words in brackets are supplied conjecturally by Professor\n    Bickell.\n\n[297] The Authorised Version has \"in this life.\" But it deviates from the\n    Hebrew original.\n\n[298] The nether world where the dead are but shadows.\n\n[299] This and the following quatrain are rhymed in the original; as is\n    also the preceding distich.\n\n[300] Thy wife.\n\n[301] The arms.\n\n[302] The legs.\n\n[303] The eyes.\n\n[304] The ears.\n\n[305] The voice.\n\n[306] The tones.\n\n[307] The teeth.\n\n[308] The white hair.\n\n[309] Fascinum.\n\n[310] [Greek: Kreis].\n\n[311] The epilogue forms no part of the original text.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE SAYINGS OF AGUR\n\nTRANSLATION OF THE RESTORED TEXT\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE SAYINGS OF AGUR\n\nFIRST SAYING\n\n_On God_\n\nI\n\n  Sentence of the man who has worried himself about God:\n  I have worried myself about God and succeeded not;\n  For I am more stupid than other men,\n  And in me there is no human understanding.\n  Neither have I learned wisdom,\n  So that I might comprehend the science of sacred things.\n\nII\n\n  Who has ascended into heaven and come down again?\n  Who can gather the wind in his fists?\n  Who can bind the waters in a garment?\n  Who can grasp all the ends of the earth?\n  Such an one would I question about God: What is his name?\n  And what is the name of his sons, if thou knowest it?[312]\n\n\nSECOND SAYING\n\n_On Four Insatiable Things_\n\n  There be three things which are never satisfied,\n  Yea, four exclaim: \"It is not enough!\"\n  The Ghoul hath two daughters:\n  \"Give, give!\"--the grave and the womb.[313]\n  The earth is not filled with water,\n  And the fire sayeth not, \"It is enough!\"\n\nTHIRD SAYING OF AGUR\n\n_On Four Inscrutable Things_\n\n  There be three things too wonderful for me,\n  Yea, four which I fathom not:\n  The way of the eagle in the air,\n  The way of the serpent upon a rock,\n  The way of a ship amidst the ocean,\n  And the way of a man with a maid.[314]\n\nFOURTH SAYING\n\n_Four Insupportable Things_\n\n  Under three things the earth quakes,\n  And under four it cannot stand.\n  Under a slave when he seeks to reign,\n  And under a fool when he is filled with meat;\n  Under an odious woman when she gets a husband,\n  And under a handmaid who is heir to her mistress.[315]\n\nFIFTH SAYING\n\n_Four who stride majestically_\n\n  There be three things which go well,\n  Yea, four are comely in going:\n  A lion--the hero among beasts,\n  Who turneth not aside for any one;\n  A greyhound and a bell-goat,\n  And a king who riseth up for his people's sake.\n\n\nSIXTH SENTENCE\n\n_Exhortation to denounce ambition_\n\n  Whether thou hast acted foolishly in exalting thyself,\n  Or whether thou hast done wisely, lay thy hand upon thy lips![316]\n  For pressure of milk produces butter,\n  And pressure of vanity produces anger;\n  Pressure of the nose[317] produces blood,\n  And pressure of wrath produces strife.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[312] To this and the following Sayings, Agur's orthodox opponent replies\n    thus:\n\n      Every word of God is purified:\n      He is a shield to them that put their trust in him.\n\n      Add thou not unto his words,\n      Lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.\n\n      Two things have I demanded of thee, O Jahveh,\n      Deny me them not before I die:\n\n      Frivolity and blasphemous words\n      And negation remove far from me.\n\n      Give me neither poverty nor riches;\n      Feed me with food suitable for me.\n\n      Lest I be sated and deny thee,\n      And say, Who is the Lord?\n\n      Or lest I be poor and yield to seduction\n      And offend against the name of my God.\n\n      Accuse not a servant to his master,[312a]\n      Lest he curse thee and thou be found guilty.\n\n      There is a bad generation that curses its father\n      And doth not bless its mother,[312b]\n\n      A bad generation which is pure in its own eyes,\n      And yet is not washed from its filthiness.\n\n      A bad generation, how lofty are its eyes!\n      And how uplifted its eyelids!\n\n      A bad generation whose teeth are as swords,\n      And whose jaw-teeth are as knives\n\n      To devour the poor from off the earth,\n      And the needy from among men.[312c]\n\n[312a] As if Agur were an aristocrat from blind unreasoning sympathy for\n    the heathen aristocracy. Allusion to Agur's 4th Saying.\n\n[312b] Against Agur's 2nd and 3rd Sayings.\n\n[312c] Against Agur's 4th Saying.\n\n[313] _I.e_., birth and death. (_Cf. Agur, the Agnostic_, pp.\n    139, 140.) The champion of orthodoxy evidently took the passage\n    literally and consequently condemned Agur as guilty of a lack of\n    filial respect for his mother, venting his feelings in the\n    following lines:\n\n      \"The eye that scoffeth at the grey hair of the father\n      And that despiseth the old age of the mother,\n\n      The ravens of the valley shall pick it out\n      And the young eagles shall devour it.\"\n\n[314] Verse 20 A.V. is an addition inserted by a later writer who having\n    misunderstood the last line of the fourth sentence, deemed it his\n    duty to give it a moral turn.\n\n[315] The Sentence following (vv. 24-24 A.V.) dealing with Four Cunning\n    Ones is probably not from Agur's pen; for not only has it five\n    distichs, but it lacks the point which characterises his Sayings,\n    besides which it does not begin, as his \"numerical\" Sentences do,\n    with _three_ before proceeding to _four_.\n\n[316] Keep silence.\n\n[317] In Hebrew the same word signifies \"nose\" and \"strife.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nINDEX\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nINDEX\n\nAdversary, the, \"a son of God\"\nAgur, the Sayings of--\n    their literary place\n    character of\n    their position in Proverbs\n    their present form\n    Agur and his orthodox opponent\n    blunders of the latter\n    Oriental influence traceable in the Sayings\n    the mystery of generation\n    date of composition\n    Agur shows  no respect  for the  doctrine  of retribution, for\n      Messianism, revelation, &c.; no belief in a personal God\n    his antagonism to Jewish theologians\n    his views of right conduct\nAngels\nAnimals, the tenderness of Buddhism towards\nAryans and Semites, contrast of mental characteristics\nAsterisks, Origen's, in the Hexapla\nAuthorship of Job\n\nBickell, Professor, and the laws of Hebrew metre\n    discovery of the Saidic version of Job\n    on the theophany in Job\n    theory as to the chaotic state of Koheleth\n    and the \"Praise of Wisdom\"\n    textual conjectures\n\"Book, That mine adversary had written a\"\nBook of Job (see Job)\nBuddhism and the theology of Job\n    and Job's moral system\n    influence of, on Koheleth\nBuddhism, spread of, into Syria, Egypt, &c.\n    influence of, on Agur\n    and the doctrine of Renunciation\n    its tenderness towards animals and plants\nByron's \"Cain\" and Job\n\n\"Cain\" (Byron's) and Job\n\"Canticles of Scepticism,\" Heine's description of Koheleth\nCheyne, Prof., and the date of Job\n    and the laws of Hebrew metre\n    and Prof. Bickell's theory of the plan of Koheleth\n    on the \"theism\" of Koheleth\n    Job, strophe liii. and Ps. viii. 5 compared.\nChrist and the doctrine of Renunciation\nChristianity not incompatible with Koheleth's scepticism\nClement of Alexandria and a lost version of Job\nCornill, Dr., and the date of Job\nCouncil of Constantinople and the historical truth of Job\nCritical apparatus applied to text of Job\n\nDate of Job\n    of earliest extant MS. of Job\n    of Koheleth\n    of the Sayings of Agur\n\nEcclesiastes (_see_ Koheleth)\nEcclesiasticus, dropped leaves causing transposition of chapters in\nElephantiasis\nEternal justice, Job's belief in\n    Koheleth's belief in\nEvil (_see_ Good and Evil)\nEwald and the laws of Hebrew metre\n\nFirmament, the\nFree-will and the origin of evil\nFuture life, Job knows nothing of\n    Koheleth knows nothing of\n\nGhoul, the (_Tanha_)\nGood and Evil, problem of\n    free-will and the origin of evil\n    the Oriental theory of\nGregory the Great and the Book of Job\n\nHebrew metre, Prof. Bickell and the laws of\nHeine and the \"Canticles of Scepticism\"\nHitopade\u00e7a, the, and the Sayings of Agur\n\nInspiration of Job not affected by reconstructive changes\nInterpolations in Job, examples of\nIsaac of Antioch, transpositions in poems caused by dropped leaves\n\nJesus Sirach and the Book of Proverbs\nJob, the Poem of--\n    compared with Lucretius, _De Nat. Rerum_\n    its inclusion in the Canon\n    its appeal to all ages\n    opinion  of Gregory the  Great, Thomas Aquinas, Tennyson,\n      Luther\n    its place in literature\n\n    the problem of\n    traditional theology\n    the mystery of good and evil\n    no conception of a future life\n    nor of the Resurrection or Atonement\n    the poet's view of the problem\n    free-will and the origin of evil\n    the Oriental theory of these\n    Brahmanism and Buddhism\n    Job's illumination the same as Buddha's\n\n    authorship of\n    date of\n    the question of historicity\n    date of earliest extant MS. of\n    a lost version of\n    various causes for changes in text\n    the chief cause, a horror of blasphemy\n    apparatus for detecting these changes\n    laws of Hebrew metre\n    parallelism\n    evidence of the Septuagint\n    Theodotion's version of the Old Testament\n    the Hexapla\n    the Saidic or Thebaic version of Job\n\n    examples of interpolations\n    reconstructive changes do not affect inspiration\n    Job's natural philosophy\n    his dynamic theory of the Universe\n    his monotheism not Jewish\n    his moral system, based on pity, found in Buddhism, and here\n      first preached in the Old Testament\n    belief in eternal justice\n    the secret of Job's resignation\n\n    the ancient legend of Job, use of it by the poet\n    analysis of the Poem\n    the appearance of Jehovah not literal\n    but symbolical of Job's illumination\n    Judaism, the influence of Buddhism on\n\nKant and Koheleth\nKoheleth--\n    its inclusion in the Canon\n    the literary problem of\n    its metaphysical basis the same as that of the philosophy of\n      Buddha, Kant, and Schopenhauer\n\n    chaotic and conflicting character of text\n    Prof. Bickell's theory as to the confusion of the book\n    instances of similar confusion in other works\n    the proposed re-arrangement\n    illustrations in support of Prof. Bickell's theory\n\n    Koheleth's theory of life\n    source of happiness not wealth\n        nor wisdom\n        nor virtue\n    Koheleth's system\n    relation of God to man\n    the practical moral\n    the view of \"moral order\"\n    the world all Maya, illusion\n    Koheleth's theory not inconsistent with Christianity\n    the reach of our knowledge; happiness the only true good\n    Koheleth knows nothing of future life or of divine promises or\n      revelations\n\n    his belief in eternal justice\n    renunciation, the great doctrine\n    wisdom the great boon\n    content and moderation the golden rule\n    the sources of his philosophy\n    opposition of Jewish orthodoxy to the book\n    admission of the book to the Canon\n    its incompatibility with Messianic hopes of Israel\n    disbelief in a personal God\n        in retribution and immortality\n    Greek influences questioned; probable influence of Buddhism\n    date and locality of Koheleth\n\nLife to come (_see_ Future Life)\nLucretius compared with Job\nLuther and the Book of Job\n\nMagicians mentioned in Job\nMaya, illusion, the teaching of Koheleth\nMetre in Hebrew, laws of\n\nNirvana, Koheleth's only real good\n    view of\n\nOld Testament, untrustworthiness of historical books\nOrigen and the Hexapla\n\nParallelism in Hebrew poetry\nPaul, St., and a lost version of Job\n\"Praise of Wisdom,\" its place in \"Proverbs,\" Prof. Bickell's discovery\nPriests' Code, the\n\"Proverbs,\" analysis of\n    not written by Solomon\n    their history\n    date of\nPlants, tenderness of Buddhism towards\n\nRenunciation, the teaching of Koheleth, Buddha, Christ, etc.\nResurrection, the (in Job)\n\"Redeemer liveth, I know that my\"\n\nSaidic or Thebaic version of Job\nSariputto, and the desire for life (_tanha_)\nSatan, \"a son of God\"\nScotus Erigena and free-will\nSchopenhauer and Koheleth\n    and Renunciation\n    and the four things insatiable\nSemites, remains of ancient speculation among\n    and Aryans, contrast of mental characteristics\nSeptuagint, the value of, in regard to text of Job\n\nTanha, the terrible Ghoul\nTennyson's opinion of Job\nThebaic or Saidic version of Job\nTheodore of Mopsuestia condemned for declaring Job to be fiction\nTheodotion's version of the Old Testament\nThomas Aquinas on Job\nTransmigration of souls\n\nVeda, the\nVedanta, the\nVowel points in Hebrew\n\n\"Wisdom, Praise of,\" its place in \"Proverbs,\" Prof. Bickell's discovery\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"The Sceptics of the Old Testament: Job - Koheleth - Agur","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":57815}