treat it copiously. We have suffered whatever is sufficiently plain in its nature, or sufficiently explicit in our public version, or whatever has already received attention in the FRAGMENTS, to pass with little or no notice, and have rather introduced what further or fresh hints we suppose may be of use.

CHAPTER I. VERSE 3.

Job's substance was 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she asses, and a very great household.

We have no mention here of gold, or silver; no revenues drawn from those metals; no splendid vases, no gems, precious stones, or pearls: cattle only are enumerated, as composing the wealth of this "great est of all the men in the East." This is an argument for the early age of Job, who is usually placed, by interpreters, between Moses and Joseph. Not that Job was ignorant of these things, since they are expressly mentioned by him or his friends, and even as early as Abraham, Gen. xxiii. 15. but, that his patriarchal manners and his simple way of life, induced him to reckon his flocks and his herds as his riches. She asses, vide on Gen. xii. 16. et al.

VERSE 16.

The fire of God, i.e. lightning. Vide on 1 Chron.

xxi. 26.

VERSE 19.

A great wind from the wilderness smote the four corners of the house, and it fell. I shall first offer the account of a whirlwind, as given by Mr. Bruce, vol. iv. p. 422.

"On the 25th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, we set out from the villages of the Nuba, intending to arrive at Basboch, where is the ferry over the Nile: but we had scarcely advanced two miles into the plain, when we were enclosed in a violent whirlwind, or what is called at sea the waterspout. The plain was red earth, which had been plentifully moistened by a shower in the night time.

The unfortunate camel that had been taken by the cohala, seemed to be nearly in the centre of the vortex. It was lifted, and thrown down at a consider able distance, and several of its ribs broken. Although, as far as I could guess, I was not near the centre, it whirled me off my feet, and threw me down upon my face, so as to make my nose gush out with blood. Two of the servants likewise had the same fate. It plastered us all over with mud, almost as smoothly as could have been done with a trowel. It took away my sense and breathing for an instant, and my mouth and nose were full of mud when I recover

ed. I guess the sphere of its action to be about 200 feet. It demolished one half of a small hut, as if it had been cut through with a knife, and dispersed the materials all over the plain, leaving the other half standing." This whirlwind was in the plain; from what quarter it came is not mentioned. Deserts should naturally be places where these kinds of winds acquire the most rapidity and power. Accordingly Mr. Park says, Travels in Africa, p. 135. "A whirlwind came from the great desert. I have seen five or six at a time. They carry up quantities of sand to an amazing height, which resemble, at a distance, so many moving pillars of smoke." It needs no proof, that what is sufficiently powerful to raise great quantities of sand, may occasionally overset whatever stands in its way, even to the overthrow and ruin of a house.

The whole man is but disease, said Democritus the expression agrees especially with Job, whose former state was affluence, now sunk to wretchedness; perfect health, but reduced to universal ulceration, and to abasement on a dunghil.

The Hebrew words describe Job's disease as a grievous inflammatory ulcer; how long it might last is unknown; some have conjectured many months; others some years. The text names this disease shechin; which is rendered, Deut. xxviii. 27. the botch, or ulcer, of Egypt; from whence we conclude that it was no new disease, no infliction of a disorder, sui generis, now first directed to the sons of men. Neither can we determine the kind of ulcer, whether it was one or more large ulcers, spreading over a considerable surface, or many small ones, standing close together.

I do not know that by ascertaining the diseases at present extant in Egypt, we can fix on which of them was that commissioned to manifest the patience of Job. If any thing had been said of its duration, that might have directed our inquiries. I shall therefore hint, first, at our infectious disease, the smallpox, which is capable of forming a covering to the person, of matter which may well be called ulcerated, each of which ulcers is indeed itself small, but all together form nearly one ulcer from head to foot. This disease we know to be of a certain duration, after which the ulcers fall off, and the flesh heals, in a manner not unlike that described, chap. xxxiii. 26.

Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged, that there is no proof that the shechin of Egypt, was the smallpox; and it has usually been thought that Job's disorder was the elephantiasis, of which Celsus speaks

thus, lib. iii. cap. 23. "The whole body is attacked to such a degree that even the bones are injured. The upper part of the body is wholly covered with blotches and tumours, whose redness gradually becomes black. The skin is unequally thick or thin, soft or hard, and is covered with a kind of scales. The body becomes emaciated; the face, the legs, and the feet swell. When the disorder has long continued, the toes and the fingers are entirely hid by the swelling. A slow fever comes on, which easily consumes a subject overwhelmed by so many miseries."

Against this, it may be said, that Job's distresses were only intended to be of temporary duration, for the trial of his virtue, during a limited time: are we then obliged to consider his disorder as one absolutely incurable? for such is the elephantiasis.

Many have supposed that a long continued ulcer was the disease of Job; and Scheuzer refers to Aretæus, lib. i. cap. 9; De Caus. Sign. Acut. Morb. for the description of a disease of this nature, which indeed is very terrible. However, there is no certainty that this is the disease described by the suffering patriarch; and therefore we forbear extracting so lamentable a description.

CHAPTER IV. VERSES 10, 11.

"The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken. The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.” We have here four different words significative of a lion.

1st, Ariah, a lion; probably of the common kind, but of full strength. Vide Gen. xlix. 11.

2dly, Shachal; this it is presumed is the black lion, mentioned by Oppian, Venat. lib. iii. "His face and mane are terrible. He is of a blackish colour, inclining to reddish brown." The same author says, he had seen lions from Ethiopia, "black, and having very beautiful manes." Elian mentions similar lions in India; and Pliny, in Syria, lib. viii. cap. 17. The Lxx render lioness.

3dly, Cephir; a strong young lion, rising in full vigour, as appears from Ezek. xix. 2, 3. " the lioness has brought up one of her whelps; it became a cephir, a young lion, it learned to catch the prey, it devoured men." Horace describes such a young lion, lib. iv. Ode 4.

4thly, Laish. Interpreters have thought this to be an old lion, even decrepit; but we should rather think on the contrary, with Bochart, that it means a stout lion and is a climax rising on the former kinds: a ferocious lion, seems rather to be the character required in this place.

5thly, Stout lion's whelps: literally, "sons of the Labiah :" for which, see Gen. xlix. 12.

VERSE 19.

How much less in them who dwell in houses of clay,
Whose foundation is in the dust;
Which are crushed before the moth.

The Hebrew osh, is employed to describe the moth, in other passages of this poem, as chap. xiii. 28; xxvii. 18. and elsewhere. This creature is usually taken for the moth which consumes clothes and wool, by reducing them to a dust and powder. But perhaps this is more properly a moth worm, for the moth itself is called ses, and is joined with osh, Isai. li. 8. this moth worm is one state of the creature, which first is enclosed in an egg, from whence it issues a worm; after a time it quits this worm state, to assume that of the complete insect or moth.

It cannot be, then, to a moth flying against a house and oversetting it, as Mr. Hervey conjectured, that this comparison is intended; but to the gradual consumption of the dwelling of the worm by its erosion; q.d. "as the habitation of a worm is consumed by its inhabitant, so is the person of man: it is no more capable of resisting disease than a woollen cloth is capable of resisting decay, when devoured and demolished by a worm:" otherwise, "crushed as a feeble and contemptible insect is crushed as we crush a moth worm, without compunction, or reluctance." The reader will accept the following extracts from Niebuhr, in reference to the sense of this passage, that "man is crushed by so feeble a thing

as a worm."

"A disease very common in Yemen, is the attack of the Guinea worm, or the vena medinensis, as it is called by the physicians of Europe. This disease is supposed to be occasioned by the use of the putrid waters, which people are obliged to drink in several parts of Yemen; and for this reason, the Arabians always pass water, with the nature of which they are unacquainted, through a linen cloth before drinking it. Where one unfortunately swallows any of the eggs of this insect, no immediate consequence follows: but, after a considerable time, the worm begins to shew itself through the skin. Our physician, Mr. Cramer, was, within a few days of his death, attacked by five of these worms at once, although this was more than five months after we had left Arabia. In the isle of Karek, I saw a French officer named Le Page, who, after a long and difficult journey performed on foot, and in an Indian dress, between Pondicherry and Surat, through the heart of India, was busy extracting a worm out of his body. He supposed that he had got it by drinking bad water in the country of the Marattas.

"This disorder is not dangerous, if the person affected can extract the worm without breaking it. With this view, it is rolled on a small bit of wood, as it comes out of the skin. It is slender as a thread,

water, have ventured too much into the river. In such cases, no doubt but the adjacent inhabitants would watch with great anxiety the motions of so terrible a neighbour. "Am I a crocodile, that thou settest a watch for me?"

CHAPTER VIII. VERSES 11, 12.

"Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water? while it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other

herb."

1st, Goma, the rush, is in all probability the papyrus, which, being manufactured for the purpose of writing on, has given name to our paper. It grows in marshy grounds; formerly in great plenty in the canals of the Nile, where it is now scarce; but according to Mr. Bruce, it abounds in the waters of Abyssinia. He has given us an account of it.

2dly, The flag. After alluding to our bulrush, which we know grows in water, Mr. Parkhurst suspects that Hasselquist has described the plant designed by the Hebrew word achu, a sort of reed

See on Deut. xxxii. 33. plate.

Add to those remarks: that the Chaldee paraphrast on Psalm Ixiv. 4. alludes to this practice; for what is in the Hebrew," they bend their bows to shoot their arrows," he renders, "they anoint their arrows with poison."

VERSE 5.

The wild ass. See on chap. xxxix. the plate.

CHAPTER VII. VERSE 12.

Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?

This sea Mr. Scott supposes to be the Nile, which, when it overflows, is watched with considerable anxiety; for, should it greatly overflow, that year would be marked with desolation. The Nile is called a sea, Isai. xxvii. 1; Ezek. xxxii. 2. It is, says Michaelis, called a sea in the Koran, Sun. vii, 12; xx. 39; xxviii. 6. We know that the daily increase of the Nile is made the subject of a kind of proclamation at Cairo, and that, should it be more or less than so many cubits, it would create a public alarm. When it overspreads its proper limits, it does great damage, by carrying away large portions of its banks, sometimes towns, or villages. "Am I an inundation, that thou settest a watch about me?"

A whale, tanin. Vide on Lam. iv. plate. Probably the creature here intended is the crocodile ; which is watched wherever its haunts are known, as there have been melancholy instances of its seizing dogs, cattle, and even women, who, going to draw

but numerous leaves, which are narrow, smooth, channelled on the upper surface; and the plant about eleven feet high. The Egyptians make ropes of the leaves. They lay them in water like hemp, and then make good and strong cables of them." It should, however, be observed that the LXX in this passage render butomus, which Hesychius explains as "a plant on which cattle are fed, like to grass:" and Suidas, as "a plant like to a reed, on which oxen feed." These explanations are remarkable, because we read, Gen. xli. 2. that the fat kine of Pharaoh fed in a meadow, says our translation; but literally, they fed on achu; meaning the same plant as in

our text is said to love water.

This leads us to wish for information on what aquatic plants the Egyptian cattle feed, which, no doubt, would lead us to the achu of these passages.

CHAPTER IX. VERSE 9.

Arcturus, orion, pleiades, and the chambers of

the south.

We have a parallel passage, Amos v. 8. "who maketh the seven stars, chimah, and orion, cesil:" but the order of the words in the present passage, is, 1st, Osh, or aish: Charles's wain.

2dly, Cesil: sirius, the dog star.

3dly, Chimah: the pleiades, seven stars, or hen and chicken.

4thly, Chederi teman. The southern, enclosures, the companies of chambers, or associations, i.e. constellations.

As there is much obscurity, and no wonder, on this recondite subject, I shall first offer what Costard observes on Scripture constellations, Astron. p. 49.

"Aish, wy, mentioned twice in the book of Job, signifies nothing more than a cluster: and therefore seems to be the same constellation with the pleiades of the Greeks. And as it is described along with its sons, these may mean the rest of the stars attending, or following them; for the year began, in those early times, with the heliacal risings of the pleiades.

“Chesilim, □□ɔ, mentioned Isai. xiii. 10. And as that chapter contains a prophecy against Babylon, it is not unlikely that the constellation itself is Babylonian; and as the word is plural, it seems, for reasons too long to enlarge on here, to mean the constellations now called the Great and Little Bear.

Whether the Greeks borrowed the constellation called the Great Bear from some other people, or formed it themselves, is uncertain. But hearing that constellation called by some other people chalista, a word much of the same import with chesil, and knowing that Lycaon had a daughter called Calisto, they took occasion to coin the fancy that she was turned into the constellation called the Bear. [Vide Asiatic Researches.]

“Chimah, nɔɔ, mentioned both in Amos and the book of Job, is nothing more than an armed man, and therefore, naturally directs us to the constellation Orion, a very old one among the Greeks, as beautifully described by Germanicus under the same image,

At contra nullo defectus lumine, totus Orion humeris splendibit, magnaq; divi Vagina, et claro cœlatus Balteus igni. "Hadri teiman, p'n', the private chambers of the south, Job ix. seem to mean no constellations in particular, but to comprehend all the stars lying toward the south pole, and invisible in the latitude of Babylon, or wherever the book of Job was composed. "Nahash barih, na wn, or the long serpent, in the book of Job, seems to denote some constellation or other, but whether the constellation draco be intended, is hard to say. It is certain, however, that observations were made upon this by the ancients, for the purposes of husbandry, as well as of sailing, as appears from Virgil:

Hædorumq; dies servandi et lucidus anguis. "Masaroth, n, seems to have been a broad circle, comprehending all such stars as lie in the way of the sun and moon. And as different parts of this circle rise heliacally at different seasons of the year, we may easily comprehend what is meant, Job xxxviii. 32. by "bringeth, forth MAZAROTH in its season.”

"Masaloth, mi, mentioned 2 Kings, xxiii. 5. may very probably be the Menâzil al kamer of the Arabians, or the Mansions of the Moon." Such are the remarks of Costard.

Niebuhr, p. 101. French edit. gives the following account of the present names of stars among the Arabs, which seem to have relation to those of Scripture. The Arabs have no names in their language related to those Hebrew names which occur, Job ix. 9. yet, 66 some of the Arabs," says he, "call the great bear, ash, násh, or benat nâsh: the pleiades they call torije: the belt of orion, misân, the balance. The pole star, kuttub, by some: by others dsjudde: the via lactea, milky way, derb el tubbeîe, the way of the carriers of cut straw [who are supposed to have let some fall in passing, whence this part of the heavens is strewed with stars.]

"I addressed myself on this subject to the Jewish astrologers at Cairo; but each of them gave me a different answer. A Jew, a sand, who professed astrology, called an assembly, wherein he and his learned brethren consulted on the names in question. At the close of which he gave me the following answer : "Ash, signifies the Arab constellation om-en-nâsh. The Arabs call the cinah, (kimeh) torije; and the cesil, (ksil) shejl. Hadret teman signifies the southern exposure." I afterward was acquainted at Bagdad with a man reported among the Jews as a great astrologer: he called ash the four greater stars of the constellation, násh. Ash, then, signifies the great bear, ursa major, which is often called a chariot, [Charles's wain: or rather, if we consider what has been said above, the four greater stars, or wheels of the wain, or waggon.] Cimeh signifies the pleiades, which also is called in Germany," the clucking hen," [or the seven stars.] Cesil is sirius, or the great dog star."

"In the tables of Ulugh Bey, published by Hyde, the stars a Byd, of the great bear, are called el nash; and the stars en, el benath. Rabbi Aben-ezra also says, "ash is the waggon, which is also called the bear, and is near to the north pole." He also says, "the ancients have assured us, that the seven small stars at the tail of the ram compose the cima." Rabbi Isaac Israel says in express terms, “ chima is the Arabian thuraija, the pleiades."

"It is most likely that the Arabs understood by shejl, or soheil, principally sirius, the dog star, as I was assured by the two astronomers of Cairo and Aleppo, and by the inhabitants of the Persian Gulf. What Phiruzabadius, De Heliaco Ortu Soheili, says, p. 78. that at the rising of the soheil the fruits ripen and the great heats are over, agrees with these remarks."

I think, on the whole, that probability is on the side of Niebuhr: nevertheless, observe, the LXX call ash, or as it is spelled, chap. xxxviii, 32. aish, the pleiades: but the most part, says Scheuzer, are for the pole star. That the course of the stars influenced the seasons, in the opinion of the ancients, is well known; whence Pliny says, lib. ii. cap. 39. "Arcturus seldom rises without bringing hail, and

tempests ;" and, lib. xviii. cap. 28. " the evils which the heavens send us are of two kinds; that is to say, tempests which produce hail, storms, and other like things, which is called vis major, and which are caused, as I have often said, by dreadful stars, such as arcturus, orion, and the kids." The ancients, however, were mistaken in this notion, for the rising, &c. of these stars only marked that time of the year when such things might naturally be expected.

The LXX render cesil, hesperus, which is now the name of the evening star, i.e. the planet Venus.

The LXX render cimah by arcturus, which according to modern astronomers is a star of the first magnitude in the lower parts of Bootes, Arctophylax; very near the bear's tail.

It remains now, that we notice the situations and bearings of these stars. Ash is the north, say the north pole star, for the present; chaderi teman, is the southern constellations; cesil and cimah, therefore, should be stars placed in equinoctial points, such is the opinion of Aben-ezra, one to the east, the other to the west. If it were possible to determine this question, we might at the same time determine the antiquity of the book of Job: because, the revolution of the heavens at the rate of one degree, &c. in a century, calculated backward, till these stars became those of the equinoctial points, would give the date of this observation, as it stood in the days of the writer of this poem: [or, rather, perhaps, of his principal personage, Job.]

CHAPTER IX. VERSE 12.

Who removeth the mountains, overturneth them, shaketh the earth out of her place.

This is evidently a description of an earthquake. During the terrible earthquake at Jamaica, 1692, the mountains were split, they opened, they closed again, they leaped, they fell in heaps. The same prodigious motions attended the earthquakes during an eruption of Vesuvius, Phil. Trans. 1783.

Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars. This may refer to that thickness of the atmosphere, which occasionally precedes, or accompanies an earthquake. Of this we have many instances. Vide Phil. Trans. 1783.

CHAPTER X. VERSE 16.

See thou mine affliction: for it increaseth: thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

I would query, whether this be the true import of the passage? May it not rather refer to the action of the lion, which, when chasing its prey, hunts it at every turn, and if it have escaped, again assaults it; literally," and is multiplied as a lion my hunting: and thou turnest again to hunt me: thou shewest how very agile thou canst be in pursuit, thy marvellous things,

CHAPTER XIV. VERSE 11.

The waters fail from the sea, the flood decayeth and dryeth up.

Vide on Exod. xiii. &c. No. 4.

I would query also, whether the word iam, rendered sea, does not mean an inland lake, such being frequently its import; then the idea would be, "as the waters of a lake are evaporated to dryness, and as a torrent, which appears only at times, but is exhausted by the heat of the sun, so man is entirely exhausted, and dies." This appears to be a probable view

of the

is

passage..

CHAPTER XX. VERSE 14.

;

His meat becomes the gall of asps within him literally, the "bitternesses of petenim." The peten very probably the kind of serpent called asp; by LXX, aspic. Elian, lib. ix. cap. 61. says, "Their poison is extremely subtile, and extends its effects very rapidly over the whole body." From hence the proverb "bite of an asp," to express an incurable wound, Aristotle, Hist. lib. viii. cap. 29; Pliny, lib. viii. cap. 23.

With this verse is connected verse 16. where we

read:

He shall suck the poison of asps, petenim.

The viper's tongue shall slay him.

but it should seem to be either from a root signifying The viper, apoch, has been variously rendered; viper hisses: or from another root signifying heat: to puff up, as a viper puffs up itself, or blowing, as a whence Rabbi Solomon renders, "the burning serpent," or dipsas; but the viper is thought to be preferable; which the Arabs call ef-â, ef-œew, and the Persians ma-ri-ef-y; by Avicenna al-aphai; by Abenbitar ephe; which names are very near to the Hebrew word.

VERSE 28.

The increase of his house shall depart; and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. The words and his goods are an insertion: perhaps we might read with greater force of language, "the increase of his house shall roll away: like flowing waves, torrents, cataracts, in the day of his wrath :" i.e. of