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but wore intelli gible . By" sorcerers of the day m an English reader would naturally understand sorcerers living at the period adverted to by the writer or the speaker . Yet this is not the sense of the original .
The present annotator observes upon ch . iv . IS , that it " probably alludes to the apostacy of the angels under Satan . Now we will not deny that men who are previously convinced of the truth of this doctrine , ^ may behold here a probable reference to it : nor will we dispute that , if the tenet hp established on independent
evidence , this verse may be deemed a confirmation of the popular belief . The meaning of a passage of scripture is to be investigated , however , on other and sounder principles . "It must be examined , first , verbally , and then in respect of its connexion and the interpreter must dismiss from his mind a bias towards "
systematizing / " A man who came to the perusal of this verse before he had heard of " a defection in the-heavenly host , " would scarcely conceive that the speaker or the poet has any such event in view . Conjecture , moreover , is not evidence : and no
sentiments should be inculcated as revealed truths , on the precarious authority of a probabl e allusion . We are aware that Mr . G . renders the latter clause , " and chargeth his angels with default . " But , really , the original word does not express an act of revolt : it signifies "
imperfection , " the inferiority of even the highest of created beings to the ^ Maker . Some failure , some inconstancy in duty , is the necessary result of the comparative " imperfection" of their nature . Yet how distant this from " the apostacy of the angels « n < ter Satan W
The word translated by the annotator « heavenly hosts" ( v . i ) , is of Va nous and extensive application ; the several Writers of the Old Testament UsU ) g it of any beings or persons Wt otevcr . who are set apart from <* hers , or selected to a specific office . * s therefore altogether arbitrary to " ^ ag me that the " heavenly hosts f « be here intended by the author . the concluding verses of the last ^ -jp ter men are the subject : and uW the PrcsKHnption arises , that that M UtlnUe to be s P oken of > and Mr . G . is . mistaken when he
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says , the allusion in the second clause of the verse before us , " is necessarily to the heavenly servants and angels . " We perceive no " opposition" in that clause to the first : both have the same -meaning ; the reference being simply to advocates in a court of j ustice Of Mr . Good ' s facility in discovering probable allusions , the existence of which may well be questioned , we have an indication in his note upon ch . vii . 6 , " Slighter than yarn are my days " I . " believe , " says he , " with most commentators , that the allegory of the web of life , as previously woven by the fates , and tissued for every individual , was co-eval with the author of the present poem , and is probably here referred to . It seems equally to be referred to by Isaiah , xxxviii . 12 . "
For our own part , we have met with very few commentators who have found traces of Heathen mythology in the book of Job- Admitting , however , the probability that some are scattered throughout it ( and we make the concession simply for the sake of
the argument ) , what are the marks of this specific allegory having a place in the poem ? . - Doubtless , human life is represented both here and in Isaiah as being analogous in certain respects to the operation of the weaver . What then 1 In every age and country where the operation is at all familiar , would
not such a metaphor , such a comparison , very naturally suggest itself ? But , after all , where , we repeat , is " the allegory of the web of life , " &c . In Job and in Isaiah we have only the weaver and the web . Where are the fatal scissors ? Where , the three sister-destinies ? Even a
schoolboy will perceive that these characteristic signs of the allegory are wanting . We leave to others the inquiry , whether this rn , thologic fiction " was co-evai with the author of the present poem ? " It is sufficient for us to have shewn that the poem itself gives no countenance to the supposition . In Job ix . 26 , the patriarch complains that his " " days are passed away as the swift ships : and we should not have been greatly astonished had Mi . Good discerned in the
image a probable reference to the Ar gonautic expedition ; the point of chro nology being first adjusted . The chief
Untitled Article
Review . — Good ' s Translation of the Book of Job . 173
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 173, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/45/
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