[Sidenote: Job 38:8-11] Or who shut up the sea with doors, When it broke forth, and issued out of the womb; When I made clouds its garments, And thick mists its swaddling-bands, And marked out for it my bound, And set bars and doors, And said, Here shalt thou come, but no further; And here shall thy proud waves stop? [Sidenote: Job 38:39-41] Canst thou hunt the prey for the lioness, Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, When they couch in their dens, And abide in the covert to lie in wait? Who provideth at evening his prey, When his young ones cry to God, And wander to seek for food? [Sidenote: Job 40:8,9] Will the fault-finder contend with the Almighty? He who argueth with God, let him answer it. Wilt thou even annul my judgment? Condemn me, that thou mayest be justified, Or hast thou an arm like God? And canst thou thunder with a voice like him? [Sidenote: Job 42:1, 2, 3, 5, 6] Then Job answered Jehovah and said: I know that thou canst do all things, And that no purpose of thine can be restrained. Therefore, I have uttered that which I did not understand; Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, But now mine eye seeth thee, Therefore I loath [my words], And repent in dust and ashes. I. The Structure of the Book of Job. Like most of the books of the Old Testament, Job is, without reasonable doubt, the work of several different writers. The prose introduction (1-2), with its corresponding conclusion (42:7-17), was probably once an independent story. The words of Jehovah in the epilogue (42:7) clearly implies that, as in 1 and 2, Job had endured the test and had meekly submitted to the afflictions which Satan, with the divine approval, had sent upon him, and that on the other hand his friends, like his wife, had urged him to curse God and die. The language and phrases of this prose story are radically different from those in the poem which constitutes the main body of the book. The unique explanation of why Job was afflicted that is given in the opening chapters is also completely ignored in the poetic dialogues (3-31). Likewise the problem of whether or not Job fears God for naught, raised in the prologue, is not taken up again except in the concluding prose epilogue. In the prose story Job's piety conforms to the popular standards, while in the poetic sections he is measured by the loftier ethical principles laid down by the pre-exilic prophets (cf. chap. 31). In form, therefore, in aim, and in content, the prose story differs fundamentally from the great dramatic poem which constitutes the real book of Job. The main body of the book is found in chapters 3-27, 29-31, 38:1-40:14, and 42:1-6. At a few points the original order has apparently been disarranged and later hands have frequently supplemented the older sections, but the literary unity of the whole is obvious. In three cycles of speeches the problem of innocent