[1.  Faussett’s “Commentary,” iii, 40.]

{p. 285}

“8.  I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause;

“9.  Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number: 

10.  Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields.”

Rain here signifies the great floods which cover the earth.

“11.  To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.”

That is to say, the poor escape to the high places—­to safety—­while the great and crafty perish.

“12.  He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands can not perform their enterprise.

“13.  He taketh the wise in their own craftiness,” (that is, in the very midst of their planning,) “and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong,” (that is, it is instantly overwhelmed).

“14.  They MEET WITH DARKNESS IN THE DAY-TIME, and grope in the noonday as in the night.” (Chap. v.)

Surely all this is extraordinary—­the troubles of mankind come from above, not from the earth; the children of the wicked are crushed in the gate, far from places of refuge; the houses of the wicked are “crushed before the moth,” those that plow wickedness perish,” by the “blast of God’s nostrils they are consumed”; the old lion perishes for want of prey, and its whelps are scattered abroad.  Eliphaz sees a vision, (the comet,) which “makes his bones to shake, and the hair of his flesh to stand up”; the people “are destroyed from morning to evening”; the cunning find their craft of no avail, but are taken; the counsel of the froward is carried headlong; the poor find safety in high places; and darkness comes in midday, so that the people grope their way;

{p. 286}

and Job’s children, servants, and animals are destroyed by a fire from heaven, and by a great wind.

Eliphaz, like the priests in the Aztec legend, thinks he sees in all this the chastening hand of God: 

“17.  Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth:  therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 

“18.  For he maketh sore, and bindeth up:  he woundeth, and his hands make whole.” (Chap. v.)

We are reminded of the Aztec prayer, where allusion is made to the wounded and sick in the cave “whose mouths were full of earth and scurf.”  Doubtless, thousands were crushed, and cut, and wounded by the falling stones, or burned by the fire, and some of them were carried by relatives and friends, or found their own way, to the shelter of the caverns.

“20.  In famine he shall redeem thee from death:  and in war from the power of the sword.

“21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue:  neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.” (Chap. v.)

“The scourge of the tongue” has no meaning in this context.  There has probably been a mistranslation at some stage of the history of the poem.  The idea is, probably, “You are hid in safety from the scourge of the comet, from the tongues of flame; you need not be afraid of the destruction that is raging without.”