聖書注解書

ヨブ記39章

神はここで引き続き、下等な被造物に対してこれほどあわれみ深く、これほど柔和な配慮をされる方でありながら、無情であると非難する根拠がヨブにいかに少ないか、また神のあわれみに比べれば無に等しいご自身の善行について神の前で誇る根拠がいかに少ないかをヨブに示される。また、回りにある被造物の性質についてこれほど知らず、彼らに対してこれほど影響力を持たず、彼らが皆依存しているその神に服する根拠がいかに大いにあるかをも示される。主は個別に論じられる。 一、野生のやぎと雌鹿について（ヨブ記39:1-4）。 二、野生のろばについて（ヨブ記39:5-8）。 三、一角獣について（ヨブ記39:9-12）。 四、くじゃくについて（ヨブ記39:13）。 五、だちょうについて（ヨブ記39:13-18）。 六、馬について（ヨブ記39:19-25）。 七、たかとわしについて（ヨブ記39:26-30）。

Several animals described: the wild goats and hinds, Job 39:1-4. The wild ass, Job 39:5-8. The unicorn, Job 39:9-12. The peacock and ostrich, Job 39:13-18. The war-horse, Job 39:19-25. The hawk, Job 39:26. And the eagle and her brood, Job 39:27-30.

INTRODUCTION TO Job 39

This chapter treats of various creatures, beasts and birds, which Job had little knowledge of, had no concern in the making of them, and scarcely any power over them; as of the goats and hinds, Job 39:1; of the wild ass, Job 39:5; of the unicorn, Job 39:9; of the peacock and ostrich, Job 39:13; of the horse, Job 39:19; and of the hawk and eagle, Job 39:26.

Ch. 38–42:6. The Lord answers Job out of the Storm

We are now to witness the last act of the drama. And to understand it we have to go back to the starting-point and recall the idea of the Poem. This idea is expressed in the question, Doth Job serve God for nought? Or, as otherwise put, the idea is, The trial of the Righteous. This trial has been observed proceeding throughout the whole Book. Now it approaches its conclusion. The Lord, who caused it or permitted it, and has watched it from afar, must now interpose to bring it to an end, and bestow on Job the fruits of it. The trial has been successfully borne: for though Job has sinned under it, his sin has not been of the kind predicted by the Adversary; he has continued to cleave to God, and even sounded deeps of faith profounder than ever he had reached before (ch. 19), and tasted the sweets of righteousness with a keener delight than during his former godly life (ch. Job 17:9).

At the point at which we are now arrived the sole object of interest is Job’s mind in its relations to God. The speculative question discussed between him and his friends concerning the meaning of his sufferings, or the meaning of evil in general in the providence of God, has no importance, except so far as the conclusions which Job has arrived at have left his mind in a condition of perplexity in regard to the ways of God. The Author’s didactic purpose in raising the discussion between Job and his friends has been served (ch. 21, 23–24.). Job himself now remains the problem.

Though the trial has been successfully borne upon the whole, Job has not come out of it scatheless. His demeanour towards God, especially in presuming to contend with Him, has been at many points profoundly blameworthy. And the thought, which he refuses to abandon (ch. Job 27:2-6, Job 31:35 seq.), that God is unjust in His rule of the world, even though he maintains it more as a theory and necessary construction of facts as he observes them, without allowing it much to influence his life, or destroy his larger faith in God, is a thought not only derogatory to God, but one that must cripple every religious movement of Job’s heart. So long as such a feeling remains his trial cannot be said to be ended. But nothing that Job himself can do, nor anything that his friends can urge, is able to remove it. It was God, by His mysterious providence, who raised this dark doubt in His servant’s mind, and He must interpose to drive it away.

It might be supposed at first that the simplest way of restoring Job to peace would have been to reveal to him that his afflictions were not due to his sin, but were the trial of his righteousness, and in this way solve the problem that perplexed him. But the elements of blameworthiness in Job’s conduct forbade this simple treatment. The disease had spread in his mind, and developed moral symptoms, which required a broader remedy. Besides, it is God who now speaks to Job; and in His teaching of men He never moves in the region of the mere understanding, but always in that of the religious life. He may remove perplexities regarding His providence and ways from men’s minds, but He does not do so by the immediate communication of intellectual light, but by flushing all the channels of thought and life with a deeper sense of Himself. Under the flow of this fuller sense of God perplexities disappear, just as rocks that raise an angry surf when the tide is low are covered and unknown when it is full. This is the meaning of God’s manifestation to Job out of the storm. He brings Himself and His full glory near to Job, and fills his mind with such a sense of Him as he had never had before—“Now mine eye seeth thee” (ch. Job 42:5). At this sight of God his heart not only quivers with an unspeakable joy, but he abhors his past thoughts of Him, and his former words, and repents in dust and ashes.

The object of the Lord’s answer to Job out of the storm is twofold, to rebuke Job, and to heal him—to bring home to his heart the blameworthiness of his words and demeanour towards God, and to lift him up out of his perplexities into peace. The two things hardly differ; at least both are effected by the same means, namely by God’s causing all His glory to pass before Job.

The Lord’s answer to Job out of the storm consists of two parts, or contains two questions:—

First, ch. Job 38:1 to Job 40:5, Shall mortal man contend with God?

Second, ch. Job 40:6 to Job 42:6, Shall man charge God with wrong in His rule of the world?

The two questions, however, are hardly kept apart, for the first implies the second, inasmuch as a man’s contention with God will naturally be because of His unjust treatment of himself. And Job, in his final words of penitence (ch. Job 42:1-6), refers back to ch. Job 38:2.

In the beginning of His first address Jehovah invites Job to enter upon that contention with Him, which he had so often sought, “Gird up thy loins like a man; and I will demand of thee, and answer thou me” (ch. Job 38:3). The point aimed at by the Divine Speaker is the presumption of Job in desiring to contend with the Almighty. Then the Lord causes a panorama of creation, both inanimate and living, to pass before Job (ch. Job 38:4 to Job 39:30). Having done so He demands, “Will he that reproveth the Almighty contend with Him”? (ch. Job 40:2.) Does Job, now that the glory of God has been made to pass before his eyes, continue to desire to contend with Him? To which Job replies, “Behold I am too mean; how shall I answer thee? I lay mine hand upon my mouth” (ch. Job 40:4). The exhibition of the great panorama of creation was but a method of revealing God, not in one attribute but in all His manifoldness and resource of mind. It was designed to abase Job before God, and rebuke his presumption. And this was its effect: “Behold I am too mean”! But the revelation of God had another design besides abasing Job. It was given to Job that he might know God, and be at peace (ch. Job 22:21).

The process, however, is not yet complete. In a second address the Lord again commands Job to gird up his loins and answer Him. But now He is more specific: “Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be in the right”? (ch. Job 40:8.) And He ironically invites Job to clothe himself with the attributes of the Supreme Ruler, and conduct the rule of the world himself. The invitation brings home to Job a still deeper feeling of that which the Almighty is, and he exclaims, “I had heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee” (ch. Job 42:5). And in this light of God his own past thought of Him seems the darker: “I abhor it, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Thus the solution to Job’s problem given in God’s answer from the storm is a religious solution, not a speculative one. It is a solution to the heart, not to the intellect. It is such a solution as only God could give; a solution which does not solve the perplexity but buries it under the tide of a fuller life and joy in God. It is a solution as broad as Job’s life and not merely the measure of his understanding; the same solution as was given to the doubting Apostle, making him to exclaim, “My Lord and my God!” and teaching him that not through his sense of touch or his eyesight, but through a broader sense, God makes himself felt by man.

Ch. Job 38:1 to Job 40:5. The Lord’s First Answer to Job out of the Storm. Shall mortal Man contend with God?

The passage has three general divisions:

First, ch. Job 38:1-38, a review of inanimate nature, the wonders of earth and sky, all revealing the manifoldness of the Divine mind, and suggesting by contrast the littleness of man.

Second, ch. Job 38:39 to Job 39:30, a review of the world of animal life, having the same object as the former division.

Third, ch. Job 40:1-5, the impression produced on Job by this vision of the glory of God in creation—he is abased and brought to silence.

This first address to Job touches simply the presumption of a man seeking to contend with God. Hence it is taken up with presenting God and man in opposition to one another. The vivid pictures of the inanimate creation, with its wonders, and the world of animal life, with its instincts and properties—all of them originated and bestowed by God—are but the means used for displaying God. And the sharp, ironical questions put to Job, where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth; whether he hunts her prey for the lioness; or combined such contradictory qualities in the ostrich; or created that wonder of beauty and fierceness, the war-horse—these questions but serve to bring out by contrast with God the feebleness and meanness of man.

Job 39:1-30.

1. 野獣たちも、人のあらゆる世話から切り離されていても、神によって最も必要な時に世話される。彼らの本能は神から直接来て、出産時に自らを助けるよう導く。出産は牧者が群れのために最も心配する時である。

野やぎ――アイベックス

(Ps 104:18; 1Sa 24:2)。

雌鹿――子鹿。最も臆病で無防備な動物であるが、神によって世話される。

「岩の野山羊が子を産む時を、あなたは知るか」——すなわち、山の山羊がその子を産む特定の季節を知るか、ということである。家畜——羊や飼いならされた山羊など——の習性は十分に知られていたであろう。しかしここでの問いは、近寄りがたい崖を自由に徘徊し、深い森の中に潜み、人の住まいと観察から遠く離れて暮らす動物に関するものである。その意味は、自然史のこうした問題に関して、ヨブには説明できない事実が数多くあった、ということである。神はそれらのすべての本能と習性を知っておられ、近寄りがたい崖においても、深い渓谷においても、暗い森においても、彼らとともにおられ、彼らは神の配慮の対象であった。神は、人の務めに用いられるようになった家畜の状態——そこでは人は、家畜の安楽の多くは自分の世話によるものだと主張したがるかもしれないが——だけを顧みられたのではない。そのような主張がまったく成り立たない場所にいる、山の野性のさまよう獣をも顧みられたのである。

神の摂理は彼らの上にも及んでいる。羊飼いや牛飼いが誰よりも自分の羊の群れや牛の群れを心配するのと同じように、彼らのいのちのうちで最も大きな注意を必要とするように見える時期にこそ、神は臨在され、彼らを保っておられるうちにご自身の配慮が示されるのである。ここでの問いの特定の要点は、これらの動物が子を産む時や妊娠の期間についてではない——それはおそらく知られていたであろう——。要点は、人の観察からこれほど遠く離れ、いかなる人の助けもない彼らに必要とされる注意と配慮についてである。ここで言及されている「岩の野山羊」は、疑いなく、岩の間、石の多い場所に住処を持つアイベックス、すなわち山山羊である。ヘブル語の語は יעל yâ‛êl、「上る、登って行く」を意味する יעל ya‛al に由来する。彼らは高山のそびえる岩に住処を置く(詩篇104:18「高い山々は野山羊の避け所である」)。

ヘブル語では「岩の山羊たちについて」——סלעים יעלים yâ‛êliym sela‛iym。サムエル記第一24:2(ヘブル語聖書では24:3)にも同様に、「サウルは野山羊の岩の上でダビデとその部下たちを捜しに行った」——すなわち野山羊たちのいる場所で——とある。これは היעלים hayâ‛êliym である。野山羊についての記述は、ボシャルト『ヒエロゾイコン』第1部第3巻第23章を見よ。ここで言及されている動物は、疑いなく、ブルクハルトがシナイ山に隣接するカタリナ山の頂で見たものと同一である。彼は『シリア旅行記』571頁で次のように記述している。「私たちが山(シナイ山に隣接するカタリナ山)の頂に近づいたとき、遠くに小さな一群れの山山羊が岩の間で草を食んでいるのを見た。私たちのアラブ人の一人が一行を離れ、大きく回り道をして風下に回り、撃てるほど近づこうとした。彼は私たちに、山羊から目を離さず、驚かせないように座っているよう命じた。彼が岩の後ろの好位置にほぼ達したとき、山羊たちは突然逃げ出した。山羊たちはそのアラブ人を見たわけではなかったが、風向きが変わり、彼の匂いを嗅いだのである。野山羊はベデンと呼ばれるが、その狩りはアルプスのシャモアの狩りに似ており、同じほどの冒険心と忍耐を要する。アラブ人たちは彼らを不意に襲うために長い回り道をし、草を食む早朝に襲いかかろうと努める。

山羊の群れには見張り役の先導者がいる。不審な匂い、物音、ものを見つけると声を発する。それは群れに逃げよと告げる合図である。アラブ人たちの言を信じるなら、近年その数は大きく減った。彼らの話では、五十年前には、見知らぬ人が天幕を訪れ、その主人に屠るべき羊がなければ、主人は銃を持ってベデンを捜しに出かけたという。しかしこの地では今なお、アルプスや紅海以東の山々よりもベデンのほうが多い。私は修道院で三、四頭を、一頭あたり4分の3ドルで買い受けた。肉は優れており、鹿肉とほとんど同じ風味を持つ。ベドウィン人はその皮で水袋を作り、角で輪を作って親指にはめる。ベデンを平原で出会えば、猟犬は容易に捕らえる。しかし岩の間ではかなわない。そこでは20フィートも跳ぶことができるからである。」

「また、雌鹿が子を産む時を、あなたはわきまえることができるか」——ここでの言及は、彼らに注がれる神の特別な配慮と保護についてである。その意味は、この動物はいつも臆病で危険を恐れているように見え、これほど無防備な動物が子を育てることができるように、特別な配慮が注がれている、ということである。雌鹿という語は鹿を表し、おそらくすべての動物の中で最も臆病で無防備なものである。

Knowest thou the time - To know time, etc., only, was easy, and has nothing extraordinary in it; but the meaning of these questions is, to know the circumstances, which have something peculiarly expressive of God's providence, and make the questions proper in this place. Pliny observes, that the hind with young is by instinct directed to a certain herb, named seselis, which facilitates the birth. Thunder, also, which looks like the more immediate hand of Providence, has the same effect. Psalm 29:9 : "The Voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to Calve." See Dr. Young. What is called the wild goat, יעל yael, from עלה alah, to ascend, go or mount up, is generally understood to be the ibex or mountain goat, called yael, from the wonderful manner in which it mounts to the tops of the highest rocks. It is certain, says Johnston, there is no crag of the mountains so high, prominent or steep, but this animal will mount it in a number of leaps, provided only it be rough, and have protuberances large enough to receive its hoofs in leaping. This animal is indigenous to Arabia, is of amazing strength and agility, and considerably larger than the common goat. Its horns are very long, and often bend back over the whole body of the animal; and it is said to throw itself from the tops of rocks or towers, and light upon its horns, without receiving any damage. It goes five months with young.

When the hinds do calve? - The hind is the female of the stag, or cervus elaphus, and goes eight months with young. They live to thirty-five or forty years. Incredible longevity has been attributed to some stags. One was taken by Charles VI., in the forest of Senlis, about whose neck was a collar with this inscription, Caesar hoc mihi donavit, which led some to believe that this animal had lived from the days of some one of the twelve Caesars, emperors of Rome. I have seen the following form of this inscription: -

Tempore quo Caesar Roma dominatus in alta

Aureolo jussit collum signare monili;

Nehemiah depascentem quisquis me gramina laedat.

Caesaris heu! caussa periturae parcere vitae!

Which has been long public in the old English ballad strain, thus: -

"When Julius Caesar reigned king,

About my neck he put this ring;

That whosoever should me take

Would save my life for Caesar's sake."

Aristotle mentions the longevity of the stag, but thinks it fabulous.

Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?.... Which creatures are so called, because they dwell among the rocks (d) and run upon them; and though their heads are loaded with a vast burden of horns upon them, yet can so poise themselves, as with the greatest swiftness, to leap from mountain to mountain, as Pliny says (e): and if they bring forth their young in the rocks, as Olympiodorus asserts, and which is not improbable, it is not to be wondered, that the time of their bringing forth should not be known by men, to whom the rocks they run upon are inaccessible;

or canst thou mark the time when the hinds do calve? that is, precisely and exactly, and so as to direct, order, and manage, and bring it about, as the Lord does: and it is wonderful that they should calve, and not cast their young before their time, when they are continually in flight and fright, through men or wild beasts, and are almost always running and leaping about; and often scared with thunder, which hastens birth, Psalm 29:9; otherwise the time of their bringing forth in general is known by men, as will be observed in Job 39:2.

(d) "----Amantis saxa capellae". Ovid. Epist. 15. v. 55. (e) Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 53. Aelian. de Animal. l. 14. c. 16.