On the other 'disputed passages' I have little to add.
(a) To me, the picture of the behémoth and the leviathan (xl. 15-xli.) seems but little less probably a later insertion than the speeches of Elihu; this view of the case has the authority of Ewald. That cautious critic, Dr. Davidson, remarks that this passage has a very different kind of movement from that of the tight and graceful sketches in chaps. xxxviii., xxxix., and that the poetic inventory which it contains reminds us more of an Arab poet's description of his camel or his horse (Job, p. liv.)
(b) I cannot speak so positively as to the speeches of Jehovah. From a purely æsthetic point of view, I am often as unwilling as any one to believe that they were 'inserted.' At other times I ask myself, Can the inconsistencies of this portion as compared with the Colloquies be explained as mere oversights? The appearance of the Almighty upon the scene is in itself strange. Job had no doubt expressed a wish for this, but did not suppose that it could be realised,[1] at any rate in his own lifetime. It is still stranger that the Almighty should appear, not in the gentle manner which Job had desired (ix. 34, 35), not with the object of a judicial investigation of the case, but in the whirlwind, and with a foregone conclusion on Job's deserts. For in fact that splendid series of ironical questions which occupies chaps. xxxviii., xxxix., and which Job had by anticipation deprecated (ix. 3), is nothing less than a long drawn-out condemnation of Job. The indictment and the defendant's reply, to which Job has referred with such proud self-confidence (xxxi. 35, 36), are wholly ignored; and the result is that which Job has unconsciously predicted in the words,—
To whom, though innocent, I would not reply,
but would make supplication unto my Judge (ix. 15).
(c) Great difficulties have been found in xxvii. 8 (or 11)-23, xxviii. First of all, Is there an inner connection between these passages? Dr. Green seeks to establish one. 'While continuing,' he says, 'to insist upon his own integrity, notwith-*
- ↑ Since this wish cannot be realised, Job pleads his cause against an invisible God with the same earnestness as if he stood before His face.
