"Reverse the picture. Suppose, by any chance that Chinese junks were to import into England, as a foreign and fashionable luxury, so harmless a thing as arsenic or corrosive sublimate; that, after a few years, it became a rage; that thousands-that hundreds of thousands used it and that its use was, in consequence of its bad effects, prohibited. Suppose that, in opposition to the prohibition, junks were stationed in St. George's Channel, with a constant supply, taking occasional trips to the Isle of Wight and the mouth of the Thames, when the governmental officers were sufficiently attentive to their duty, at the former station, to prevent its introduction there. Suppose the consumption to increase annually, and to arouse the attention of government, and of those soundthinking men who foresaw misery and destruction from the rapid spread of an insidious, unprofitable, and dangerous habit, Suppose, in fact, that mutato nomine, all which has been "achieved here," had been practised there. Suppose some conservators of the public morals to be roused at last, and to remonstrate against its use and increase; and that among the nation sending forth this destroyer to prey on private happiness and public virtue, one or two pious and well-meaning bonzes were to remonstrate with their countrymen, à la archdeacon Dealtry,' on the enormity of their conduct; how wonderfully consolatory to one party, and unanswerable to the other, must be the remark of the well-dressed and well-educated Chinese merchant: Hai ya, my friend, do not you see my silk dress and the crystal knob on my cap: do you not know that I have read, and can quote, Confucius, Mencius, and all the Five Books; do you not see that the barbarians are passionately fond of arsenic, and that they will have it ;-that they go so far as to pay for it: and can you, for one moment, doubt that it would not be much worse for them if, instead of my bringing it, it were left to the chance, needy, and uncertain supply, which low men of no capital' could afford to bring?"

It is to be hoped that the philanthropic views of the gentlemen connected with India trade who first brought this subject under Mr. Thelwall's notice, and that his own earnest and hearty efforts to awaken the people of Great Britain, especially those who sit in Parliament, not only to the fearful, moral, and physical evils which are inseparable from our present system of the Opium Trade with China, but to the main causes which exclude our merchants from the advantages of an unrestricted intercourse with that empire, will have their rightful and necessary effect. We fain hope that Great Britain will continue to be the champion of freedom and religion, and that the present generation may not pass away, without the foul stain that has now been occupying painfully our attention being erased from her flag.

268

ART. XII.—Job and his Times; or, a Picture of the Patriarchal Age during the Period between Noah and Abraham, and a New Version of that Ancient Poem. By THOMAS WEMYSS, Author of Biblical Gleanings, Symbolical Dictionary, and other Works. London: Jackson and Walford. 1839.

WHEN we find, as we have in the present instance, that a portion of the Holy Scriptures has been made the subject of prolonged study and accurate scholarship; that real piety, deep earnestness, and sound taste have been brought to bear upon one of the most obscure yet instructive parts of the Bible, it would be criminal, were we rashly, or after a single perusal of the book, to pronounce any condemnatory opinion, even although the author's views may be new and calculated to stun us. We confess that parts of the translation and comments here given have forced us to pause and to doubt; but, at the same time, there is such an obvious prevalence of learning, of candour, and eagerness, in order that the pure truth may be discovered, that we shall not venture to do more than present a summary of some of the contents. The work indeed is calculated to excite much attention among biblical scholars and serious thinkers; and, we have no doubt, will obtain for the book of Job a more anxious and admiring study, on the part of many, than ever before.

This portion of Scripture, every scholar and well-informed Christian is aware, exhibits many singularities. It stands alone and distinctly out from every other part of the sacred volume, not merely as regards the structure of its language, but the character of the religion and the manners which it pictures. It is in every respect a patriarchal work. containing the most beautiful delineation of primitive times. Yet the arts and sciences, even at that early period, in the morning, comparatively speaking, of the world's existence, had made great progress. And what is more, there was, to quote our author's precise words, "a majesty, a grandeur, a solidity, and a solemnity in the transactions and the characters presented to us in the book, "to which the frothiness and puerility of our manners and customs form a pitiable contrast.'

In the course of his Notes and Dissertations, which are very numerous and interesting, Mr. Wemyss has addressed himself to every question that has been started in reference to the book of Job and its more remarkable passages. He makes it quite manifest that extreme obscurity attaches to many parts of the composition, and that the English authorized translation may frequently be impugned. To three or four of the most remarkable alterations which distinguish this new version we proceed to direct attention.

Mr. Wemyss maintains that the Satan introduced into the scene in the book of Job, is not the evil principle recognised among the Jews at a later age, as the prince of Devils. We quote his version:

"1 There was a man in the region of Uz, whose name was Job. He was a sincerely upright man, who worshipped God, and who ab2 stained from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three 3 daughters. He possessed seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she asses, and a great number of servants. So that of all the sons of the East he was the wealthiest.

"4 Now his sons had a custom of feasting at each other's houses, every one on his birth-day; when thev invited their three sisters to eat 5 and drink with them. And when the days of feasting were over, Job sent and made expiation for them, early the next morning, and offered burnt-offerings according to the number of his children; for he said. Perhaps my sons may have sinned, and may have offended against God in their hearts.' Thus did Job on every such occasion. "6 One day, when the sons of God went to present themselves before 7 Jehovah, the Accusing Angel went also with them. And Jehovah said to the Accusing Angel, Whence comest thou?' And the Accusing Angel in reply said to Jehovah, From roaming round the 8 earth, and walking about it.' Then Jehovah said to the Accusing Angel, Hast thou taken notice of my servant Job; he hath not his equal upon earth; a man sincerely upright, worshipping God, and 9 abstaining from evil? The Accusing Angel replied to Jehovah, 10 Is Job's worship of God disinterested? Hast thou not sur

rounded him with a fence, himself, his house, and all that belongs to him? Thou hast blessed the labour of his hands, and his property 11 overspreads the land. But stretch forth thine hand, and smite all 12 that he has will he not then openly renounce thee?' Then Jehovah said to the Accusing Angel, Behold, all that he has is in thy power, only stretch not forth thine hand against himself.' So the Accusing Angel departed from the presence of Jehovah."

His view is that according to the condescension of the Supreme being when adapting himself to human understandings, the Satan in Job, means the public accuser or prosecutor in the court and council of heaven,-one of the ministering angels. There appears, he says, to be among the celestials one who holds such an office, the inspector and censor of human manners, in every part of the family of man, and who carries his reports to the Divine judgmentseat accordingly. It would be utterly incongruous, he thinks, to imagine, that the enemy of God and man, the impure spirit, should have free and undebarred access, whenever he chose it, to the Divine presence. The colloquy itself countenances this view, he says. The term Satan in Hebrew, like Diabolos in Greek is a name of office or character, and the whole composition of the poem is pronounced to require this interpretation, which some other writers, Dr. Russell, for instance, in his "Connection of Sacred and Profane History," countenances. At considerable length our author illustrates and defends a reading which, it will at once be admitted, concerns a mysterious subject.

One of the most striking of our author's opinions and translations occurs when he speaks of Job's ideas of a future state; for he denies that the patriarch had any knowledge of a life to come. He says,

Chap. xix. 25, &c. I have rendered thus:-
:-

For I know that my Vindicator liveth,

And that, at length, he will appear on the earth,
And though this, my skin, is thus corroded,
Yet in my flesh I shall see God;

Whom I shall see as my Friend,

And mine eyes shall behold him not estranged from me,
When I shall have fulfilled all that is appointed for me.'

Which may be thus paraphrased, in connexion with the preceding and subsequent verses:

"O that my words, in vindication of myself, were recorded in some permanent memorial. For I am sure I have a Deliverer left, who will hereafter espouse my cause, even on this side the grave; and after these men have exercised their cruelty on me, I shall at length see God, whom I shall see declaring himself in my favour, and no longer alienated from me, as he seems to be at present. Then, when I shall have finished my trial, will ye not begin to say among yourselves, why have we persecuted him in such a manner, since the event has proved him guiltless of the crimes alleged against him? Beware, therefore, of drawing down the Divine judgments upon you; for his vengeance will visit all unrighteous doings, so as to teach you candour and consideration for your neighbour in the time to come."

"This interpretation is justified by the following considerations:

"1. The translation above given is close to the original, and requires no supplements; whereas, in our version, in order to make out the sense, the words day, though, worms, body, are obliged to be inserted; and in this way, by supplying words, we may make the Scriptures speak anything we please.

2 The Septuagint gives no countenance to our mode of rendering the passage. Its language is:

"For I know that He is eternal

Who is about to deliver me on earth,

To restore this skin of mine which endures these things;

For by the Lord these things have been done to me,

Of which I am conscious to myself,

Which my own eye hath seen, and not another,

But all was fullfilled in my own bosom,'

The Chaldee also has, my Deliverer or Restorer.'

3. There is no other passage in the whole book of Job, importing that he knew anything of the Messiah, or that he believed in a resurrection from the dead at the last day.

"4. It is a good and safe rule, to apply no Old Testament passage to Jesus Christ, which is not so applied to him in the New. Much mysticism and misinterpretation of Scripture have arisen from the violation of this rule.

"5. Another proof of the correctness of our interpretation lies in the use of the words ol oper. ' above the dust,' which always mean on this side the grave, as in or under the dust signifies after death.' The word li, in Hebrew, which we translate on my side,' is exactly correspondent to the term lenore in Psalm cxxiv. 1.

'If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side ;'

and la zer, in the next clause, is exegetical of li, and signifies 'not alienated-not estranged-friendly.'

"6. There is a farther reason why the word gal or goel should be considered in the light here contended for, since the Hebrews have another term, which they use when they intend to speak of redeeming in a general That word is pede. See Exod. xiii. 15; xxxiv. 20: Levit. 20, &c. And notwithstanding this precision so observable in the Hebrew, gal is translated into Greek by the LXX. in no less than eight different ways, as may be seen in Trommius's Concordance to the Septuagint.

sense.

X.

7. The language used in chap. xvi. 19, is not very dissimilar from this text:

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And my eye-witness is on high,'

and is a proof that Job entertained expectations from that quarter, viz., -that God would sooner or later interfere to vindicate him. This is the whole amount of his faith, as regards this matter.

"8. Had Job possessed a hope in the resurrection from the dead, and in a Saviour to come, he would never have cursed the day of his birth, as he desperately does in chap. iii.; neither would he have uttered the impatient speeches he does in other parts of the book. And Zophar appears to have understood him as meaning a temporal deliverance; for, in chap. xx. 27, in replying to Job's remarks, he denies that the patriarch could expect such an intervention. On the contrary, says he,

The heaven shall reveal his iniquity,

And the earth shall rise up against him.'

And it is plain, when the final catastrophe of the Poem takes place, that Job had a reference to his own words and expectation, as recorded in chap. xlii. 5. He had said in the passage before us,

I shall see God,

Whom I shall see as my friend,

And mine eyes behold.'

And at the close of the book, Job expressly says,

'I have heard of thee (i. e. formerly) by the hearing of the ear,
But now mine eye seeth thee.'

So that there must have been a visible manifestation of the Deity to him, in such form and manner as mortal eyes can bear, agreeably to his own hope expressed in this passage."

Mr. Wemyss further remarks that had Job in this place intimated his faith in the coming Messiah, in the explicit manner which is generally supposed, so eminent an example of faith would