"7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. "8. _He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them_." The clouds do not break with this unparalleled load of moisture. "9. _He holdeth back the face of his throne_, and _spreadeth his cloud upon it_. "10. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, _until the day and night come to an end_. "11. The pillars of heaven _tremble_, and are astonished at his reproof. "12. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud." ("By his wisdom _he has struck the proud_ one."--Douay ver.) "13. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens his hand hath _formed the crooked serpent_." ("His artful hand brought forth the winding serpent."--Douay ver.) What is the meaning of all this? The dead under the waters tremble; hell is naked, in the blazing heat, and destruction is uncovered; the north, the cold, descends on the world; the waters are bound up in thick clouds; the face of God's throne, the sun, is bidden by the clouds spread upon it; darkness has come, day and night are all one; the earth trembles; he has lighted up the heavens with the fiery comet, shaped like a crooked serpent, but he has struck him as Indra struck Vritra. How else can these words be interpreted? When {p. 302} otherwise did the day and night come to an end? What is the crooked serpent? Job continues, (chap. xxviii,) and speaks in an enigmatical way, v. 3, of "the _stones_ of darkness, and the shadow of death." 114. The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants; even the waters forgotten of the foot: _they are dried up_, they are gone away from men. "5. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up _as it were fire_." Maurer and Gesenius translate verse 4 in a way wonderfully in accord with my theory: "The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants," they render, "a shaft, (or gulley-like pit,) is broken open far from the inhabitant, the dweller on the surface of the earth."[1] This is doubtless the pit in which Job was bidden, the narrow-mouthed, bottomless cave, referred to hereafter. And the words, "forgotten of the foot," confirm this view, for the high authorities, just cited, tell us that these words mean literally, "unsupported by the foot THEY HANG BY ROPES IN DESCENDING; they are dried up; they are gone away from men."[2] Here we have, probably, a picture of Job and his companions descending by ropes into some great cavern, "dried up" by the heat, seeking refuge, far from the habitations of men, in some "deep shaft or gulley-like pit." And the words, "they are gone away from men," Maurer and Gesenius translate, "far from men they move with uncertain steps--they _stagger_." They are stumbling through the darkness, hurrying to a place of refuge, precisely as narrated in the Central American legends. [1. Fausset's "Commentaries," vol. iii, p. 66. 2. Ibid.] {p. 303}