Interest of character abounds in the poem. I must confess I cannot follow the subtle differences which some commentators see between the characters of the three Friends. of Character XV. 10 It is easy to recognise in Eliphaz a stately personage with a wider range of thought than his colleagues. But Bildad and Zophar leave different impressions on different readers. To me Bildad seems a touch more blunt in his manner than the rest. Of Zophar I would only say that the speeches assigned him fit well with the suggestion of his being a generation older than the other personages of the poem; though of course the words of Eliphaz which claim such a personage as on his side need not necessarily refer to anyone present. But whatever may be thought about the individualities of the Friends, no one can miss the contrast between the whole group and Job; between the interest of static character in various modifications of conformity to current ideals, and the interest of a dynamic personality like that of Job, which can look back to a realisation of the perfection his friends describe, and can yet at the call of circumstances fling his former beliefs to the winds, and probe passionately among the mysteries of providence for new conceptions of divine rule. And the welcome addition to the poem of Elihu adds the ever fresh interest of youth in contrast with age. In the impetuous self-confidence of this personage, his flowing yet jejune eloquence, and in the chilling reception it meets alike from Job and Job's adversaries, we have youth presented from the one side. But, on the other hand, youth has dramatic justice done to it when we find Elihu's heart beating responsive to every change of the changing heavens, and eagerly drinking in the accumulating terrors of the storm, until his wild speech stops only before the voice of God. But scenery and character might almost be called secondary elements of drama: its essence lies in action. The whole world of literature hardly contains a more remarkable piece of dramatic movement than the changes of position taken up by Job in the course of his dialogue with the and of Movement Friends. Before it commenced Job had met his ruin with that ideal patience which has forever been associated with his name. At last we find just a shadow of resistance in his plaintive enquiry, why life should be forced upon the miserable. His friends fasten upon this, and make it a starting-point for the discussion in which they urge that the sufferer is a sinner. Almost in an instant the patient Job is transformed into an angry rebel, tearing to shreds optimist views of righteous providence, and, with the passion of a Titan, painting God as an Irresponsible Omnipotence that delights to put righteousness and wickedness on an equality of helplessness to resist Him. The Friends continue their pressure, and Job is driven to appeal to God against their misconstruction; more and more as the action advances Job is led to rest his hopes of vindication on the Being he began by maligning. At last he is found to have traversed a circle: and the same God whom, in the ninth chapter, he had accused of exercising judgment only to show his omnipotence, he contrasts with the Friends in the twenty-third chapter as a judge who would not contend with him in the greatness of his power. When the climax of the Theophany comes, this movement of the drama is carried forward into a double surprise. Job had felt that if only he could find his way into the presence of God his cause would be secure. His prayer is strangely granted, and with what result? I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; But now mine eye seeth thee, Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent In dust and ashes. Yet was Job's first thought a mistake? The answer is a second surprise. While the tempest lasts the Theophany appears wholly directed against Job. But when the storm has cleared it is found to be the adversaries who have incurred the wrath of God, and his servant Job has said of him the thing that is right. The deep moral significance of these various presentations of Deity need not make us overlook the dramatic beauty in the transition from one to another. The dialogue in Job is introduced and concluded by a narrative story, and to dramatic effect must be added epic: I use this word without meaning to convey any judgment on the Epic Interest question whether the incidents of the book are to be regarded as imaginary or as historically true. The narrative is one of grand simplicity, like the epics of antiquity. A few touches create for us a whole picture of life and scheme of society. The first note struck is that of perfection; and the life of which Job is declared the perfect type is that of a simple pastoral age. His substance of cattle is given in ideal figures; and he is called the greatest of all the children of the east. It is an age in which the 'state' is not yet born, but family life is pictured on the highest scale. The great seasons which break the monotony of such patriarchal existence are rounds of festal gatherings among the seven sons of Job, each receiving on his day with a regularity never broken; the sons moreover invite their sisters, and so women's society raises a revel into a dignified ceremonial. Such interchange of festivity would represent the highest ordinary ideals of the age. But behind this, Job, who lives in a wider world, has his high day of religious devotion, rising early in the morning to sanctify his children against possible sin. In an instant, without any connecting link or wordy preparation, after the fashion of the old epics which have the doings of gods and men alike in their grasp, we are transported to the heavenly counterpart of such earthly festivities. Heaven too has its high day on which the sons of God gather together from their several provinces; in the description of two such assemblies the recurrence of identical phrases conveys the notion of ritual and ceremonial observance. We reach a point in the story at which the utmost care is needed to guard against a misconception of the whole incident. Among the sons of God, it is (The Satan of Job) said, comes The Satan.' It is best to use the article and speak of The Satan,' or as the margin gives it, 'The Adversary': that is, the Adversary of the Saints. Elsewhere in Scripture the title of this office has become the name of Zecha a personage- the Adversary of God, or 'Satan." But here (as in a similar passage of Zechariah) the Satan is an official of the Court of Heaven. There is nothing in his recep- riah iii. I tion to distinguish him from the other sons of God; as they may come from sun or moon or other parts of the Universe, so the Satan is the Inspector of Earth, and describes his occupation as "going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it." When once the associations with the other 'Satan' are laid aside, it is easy to see that in the dealings of this personage with Job there is no malignity; he simply questions where others accept, and in an inspector such distrust is a virtue. The Roman Church has exactly caught this conception in its 'Advocatus Diaboli': such an advocate may be in fact a pious and kindly ecclesiastic, but he has the function assigned him of searching out all possible evil that can be alleged against a candidate for canonisation, lest the honours of the Church might be given without due enquiry. In the present case the Satan merely points out possible weaknesses in Job, and a means of testing them. The Court of Heaven sanctions the 'experiment':- the word 'experiment' has only to be changed into its equivalent 'probation' for the whole proceeding to be brought within accepted notions of divine gov ernment. Epic power is again exhibited in the description of the mode in which this experiment is carried out. Slow history brings about results by what means are in its power, with much of makeshift, and accidents which mar the symmetry of events. But epic poetry can make its action harmonious; and it seems to be a conspiracy of heaven and earth that compasses Job's destruction. The Sabeans take his oxen, the sky rains fire upon the sheep, the 1 Bishop Bickersteth in his epic poem Yesterday, To-day, and Forever ingeniously harmonises these two conceptions of Satan. He makes his Lucifer Guardian Spirit of Earth and Man: as part of his office he tempts Adam: then flies to Heaven to be fallen Man's accuser: gradually the spirit in which he has executed his office intensifies and makes more and more pronounced his own fall, until he at last sinks into an open Adversary of God. See the poem, books iv-vi, and the bishop's defence of this view in the St. James's Sermons. Chaldeans carry away the camels, and the winds of the wilderness overwhelm Job's children: while the separate destructions are worked into a concerto of ruin by the recurrence of the messenger's wail I only am escaped alone to tell thee. It is an ideally grand shock. But at this stage Job's character is epic, and the shock is met by an ideal grandeur of acceptance. One by one the customary gestures of distress are exhibited, and then slowly succeed the words which have become the world's formulary for the emotion of bereavement. They are sublime words, that first proclaim simply the essential manhood to which the whole of life is but an accessory, and then throw over pious submission a grace of oriental courtesy that would make the resumption of a gift an occasion for remembering the giver. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, And naked shall I return thither! The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away : Our epic plot intensifies, and when the second assembly in heaven is held, God and the Satan concur in honouring Job's constancy by severer tests. In what follows there is no realistic description; epic poetry can act by reticence, and a word or two are sufficient to convey the picture of Job shrinking away silent and unclean from among his fellows, with a patience terrible to look upon; until the silence is broken by a second of those utterances of his which are so colossal in their simplicity. The oriental nomad life has two ideals specially its own. One is the solemn giving and receiving of gifts. The other is an instinct of authority that knows no bounds to its submission: an oriental seems to feel a pride in self-prostration before his natural lord. Both ideals are united in Job's answer to his wife's murmur : What? shall we receive good at the hands of God and |