11. Representing the reign of universal idolatry, and consequent ignorance of the masses, and preceding the anxious inquiries concerning immortality by Confucius, Socrates and Plato, Zophar is prepared to fill in his part of the drama. The question of the resurrection is discussed in the light of nature, in Chap. 14. He is compelled to leave it as an open question, only wishing that it might be true. “Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me.” He nears the time of the general expectation of Messiah’s appearance on earth. He closes to allow Zophar, the representative of those Scribes and Pharisees in their tradition, to speak again. This is found in the fifteenth chapter. 12. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth, inclusive, Job personifies Christ. Hence these chapters are Messianic. “They have gaped upon me with their mouth, they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully. My days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Are there not mockers with me? For thou hast hid their heart from understanding.” Many of these sentences are quoted into the twenty-second psalm, recognized by all commentators to be Messianic. This Special Providence, as a rule to depend upon, watched Christ on the cross; it triumphed over the fact that God did not deliver him. Here it is in prophecy: “The snare is laid for him in the ground. It shall devour the strength of his skin, even the firstborn of death, it shall devour his strength. His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle. His remembrance shall perish from the earth. He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. He shall neither have son or nephew among his people.” Isaiah, quoting the sentiment, asks, “Who shall declare his generation, for his life was taken from the earth?” The Messianic voice is personified from the grave. The grave speaks the facts of history. “He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolks have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. They whom I loved are turned against me. Why do you persecute me as God?” In the nineteenth chapter Job has reached the resurrection. How changed the voice! “Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen, and lead in the rock forever.”