The Answer of Job.
And Job answered and said,
Hear my speech with attention,
And let this be your consolation.
Suffer me, and I will speak,
And after I have spoken thou mayest mock.
As for me, [is] my complaint to man?
And why then should not my spirit be short?
Turn to me, and be astonished, and lay hand on mouth.
Truly, if I think on [it], I am troubled,
And my flesh doth shudder.
Why do the wicked live, become old,
And mighty in wealth?
Their seed is established with them in their sight,
And their issues before their eyes.
Their houses [are] peace, without fear,
And the rod of God [is] not upon them.
His bull gendereth, and faileth not,
His cow calveth, and miscarrieth not.
They send forth their suckling’s as a flock,
And their children frisk.
They lift [their voice] to timbrel and harp,
And rejoice at the sound of a pipe.
They wear out their days in prosperity,
And in a moment sink [to] Sheol.
Yet they say to God, Depart from us,
For we desired not the knowledge of Thy ways:
What [is] the Almighty that we should serve Him?
And what profit have we if we meet Him?
Lo! their good [is] not in their hand.
The counsel of the wicked be far from me.
How oft is the lamp of the wicked put out,
And their destruction cometh upon them—
Torments He appointeth in His anger!
They are as straw before wind,
And as chaff a whirlwind stealeth.
God layeth up his iniquity for his children,
He repayeth him, and he knoweth [it].
His own eyes see his blow,
And he drinketh of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what delight [hath] he in his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off?
Shall [one] teach God [El] knowledge,
And He nevertheless judgeth the righteous?
This [man] dieth in the fullness of his strength,
Altogether at ease, and quiet;
His troughs are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is soaked.
And this [man] dieth with a bitter soul,
And hath not eaten of the good.
Together they lie down in the dust.
And the worm covereth them over.
Lo! I know your thoughts,
And the plots ye do violently against me.
For ye say, Where [is] the house of the prince?
And where the tent of the habitations of the wicked?
Have ye not asked the passers-by?
And their signs do ye not know?
To a day of destruction the wicked is spared,
To a day of great wrath they are led off.
Who to his face declareth his way,
And who requiteth him what he hath done?
And he, to the graves he is brought,
And over the heap he keepeth watch.
Sweet to him are the clods of the valley,
And after him draweth everybody.
And [there is] no counting before him.
How vainly then ye comfort me!
Your answers remain falsehood.
Job subjects his third assailant to a closer examination, after a call to hear, not without severity. It would console him most for them to listen attentively. After he had spoken, Zophar might continue what he cannot but call mockery. Job felt far more truly than they that his was no common trial, and that they had wholly failed to help him in discerning its ground, character and object. That it came from God he doubted no more than they; that it looked, yet could not be, penal he felt; yet was he wholly unable to divine the how and wherefore of his strange, and profound, and prolonged sufferings. They might complain if he complained as to man. But that God should so try one who held fast to his integrity to Himself, and who utterly denied their surmises of hidden wickedness, did try his spirit to the utmost, and account for his impatience. But he summons with marked solemnity to hear what he admits made himself shudder, yet an undeniable truth, in flat contradiction of their narrow thoughts, and wise saws, and uncharitable dogmatizing, that the wicked, instead of being cut down young, live on, grow old, become great in power, with their posterity established round about them, and their offspring before their eyes; that their households are free from fear or scourge; that their farms flourish; that they enjoy life to the full, spending their days prosperously, till, in a moment, not with lingering disease or racked with agony, they sink to Sheol; yet, spite of every good, not only not owning God in thankful praise, but desiring no knowledge of God, yea distance from Him, and accounting prayer wholly useless.
Job, however, stands to it that somehow the prosperity of the wicked is not in their hand but God’s, yet he abhors their counsel and ways. How often, he asks, does their lamp go out, and destruction break on them, as God is pleased to apportion in His displeasure? It may be now and then, hardly often; it is false to say always. The day is coming when the ungodly, instead of prospering, shall be like the chaff which the wind driveth away. (Ps. 1.) The friends antedated the time, directing their eyes (blinded, alas!) to the present, like Christendom, instead of waiting, like Job, for the resurrection and the kingdom. It may fall on his children, not on the man himself, in this world. Job looks on to the judgment, when the evil-doer must suffer. Let none then misjudge God’s ways, or draw unfounded inferences from His government at present. Look at these two men, each with a full cup, one of happiness, the other of misery; both lying dead together. Appearances prove nothing but the haste and folly of those who judge before the time. Such were their thoughts and plots to the wrong of himself. They might have learnt better from those that pass by, that the wicked is spared for a day of doom; yet who would tell him so? He is buried with no less care than others, people following in his wake, as countless souls before. Thus evidently vain was their consolation, and their answers fallacious.