What rod--what fear? Surely not the mere physical affliction which is popularly supposed to have constituted Job's chief grievance. Is the "rod" that terrifies Job so that he fears to speak, that great object which cleft the heavens; that curved wolf-jaw of the Goths, one end of which rested on the earth while the other touched the sun? Is it the great sword of Surt? And here we have another (chap. x) allusion to the "darkness," although in our version it is applied to death: "21. Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. "22. A _land of darkness_ as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, _without any order_, and _where the light is as darkness_." Or, as the Douay version has it: "21. Before I go, and return no more, to _a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death_. "22. A land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order but _everlasting horror dwelleth_." This is not death; death is a place of peace, "where the wicked ceased from troubling "; this is a description of the chaotic condition of things on the earth outside the cave, "without any order," and where even the feeble light of day is little better than total darkness. Job thinks he might just as well go out into this dreadful world and end it all. Zophar argues (chap. xi) that all these things have {p. 293} come because of the wickedness of the people, and that it is all right: "10. If he _cut off_ and _shut up_ and _gather together_, who can hinder him? "11. For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it? "If he cut off," the commentators say, means literally, "If he pass by as a storm." That is to say, if he cuts off the people, (kills them by the million,) and shuts up a few in caves, as Job was shut up in prison, gathered together from the storm, how are _you_ going to help it? Hath he not seen the vanity and wickedness of man? And Zophar tells Job to hope, to pray to God, and that he will yet escape: "16. Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it _as waters that pass away_. "17. And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning." "Thou shalt shine forth" Gesenius renders, "though _now thou art in darkness_ thou shalt presently be as the morning"; that is, the storm will pass and the light return. Umbreit gives it, "Thy darkness shall be as the morning; only the darkness of morning twilight, not nocturnal darkness." That is, Job will return to that dim light which followed the Drift Age. "18. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, _thou shalt dig_ about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety." That is to say, when the waters pass away, with them shall pass away thy miseries; the sun shall yet return brighter than ever; thou shalt be secure; thou shalt _dig thy way out of these caverns;_ and then take thy rest in {p. 294}