“22.  At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

“23.  For thou shalt be in league with THE STONES OF THE FIELD:  and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.” (Chap. v.)

That is to say, as in the Aztec legend, the stones of the field have killed some of the beasts if the earth, “the lions have perished,” and their whelps have been scattered;

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the stones have thus been your friends; and other beasts have fled with you into these caverns, as in the Navajo tradition, where you may be able, living upon them, to defy famine.

Now it may be said that all this is a strained construction; but what construction can be substituted that will make sense of these allusions?  How can the stones of the field be in league with man?  How does the ordinary summer rain falling on the earth set up the low and destroy the wealthy?  And what has all this to do with a darkness that cometh in the day-time in which the wicked grope helplessly?

But the allusions continue

Job cries out, in the next chapter (chap. vi)

“2.  Oh that my grief” (my sins whereby I deserved wrath) “were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!

3. As the sands of the sea this would appear heavier, therefore my words are full of sorrow. (Douay version.)

’14.  For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit; the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me” ("war against me"-Douay ver.).

That is to say, disaster comes down heavier than the sands—­the gravel of the sea; I am wounded; the arrows of God, the darts of fire, have stricken me.  We find in the American legends the descending débris constantly alluded to as “stones, arrows, and spears”; I am poisoned with the foul exhalations of the comet; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.  All this is comprehensible as a description of a great disaster of nature, but it is extravagant language to apply to a mere case of boils.

“9.  Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand and cut me off.”

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The commentators say that “to destroy me” means literally “to grind or crush me.” (Chap. vi.)

Job despairs of final escape: 

“11.  What is my strength that I can hold out?  And what is I end that I should keep patience?” (Douay.)

“12 .  Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass? "

That is to say, how can I ever bold out?  How can I ever survive this great tempest?  How can my strength stand the crushing of these stones?  Is my flesh brass, that it will not burn up?  Can I live in a world where such things are to continue?

And here follow allusions which are remarkable as occurring in an Arabian composition, in a land of torrid beats: