And unto man he said,
'Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom,
and to turn aside from evil is understanding' (xxviii. 28).
Thus there is no allusion whatever to Job's problem, and it is only the present position of the mashal in the Book of Job which suggests a possible relation for it to that problem.
And now, looking at the passage by itself, is it conceivable that it was originally written to stand where it now does? Is it natural that the solemn contents of chap. xxvii. (even if we allow the first seven verses only to be Job's) should leave Job in a mood for an elaborate poetical study of mining operations, or that after agonising so long over the painful riddles of Divine Providence he should suddenly acquiesce in the narrow limits of human knowledge, soon, however, to relapse into his old inquisitiveness? Is it not, on the other hand, very conceivable (notice the opening word 'For') that it was transferred to its present position from some other work? In a didactic poem on Wisdom (i.e. the plan of the universe), similar to Prov. i.-ix., it would be as much in place as the hymn on Wisdom in Prov. viii. To this great work indeed it presents more than one analogy, both in its subject and its recommendation of religious morality (or moral religion) as the branch of wisdom suitable to man. The only difference is that the writer of Job xxviii. expressly says that this is the only wisdom within human ken, whereas the writer of Prov. viii. does not touch on this point. But, whether an extract from a larger work or written as a supplement to the poem of Job, the passage in its present position is evidently intended to have a reference to Job's problem. The author, or the extractor, regarded the fore-*going debates much as Milton regarded those of the fallen angels, who 'found no end, in wandering mazes lost;' in short, he could only solve the problem by pronouncing it insoluble.[1] Verses 11 and 12 of chap. xxvii. have very much the appearance of an artificial bridge inserted by the new author or the extractor.
- ↑ But for this tendency of the poem one might follow Delitzsch (art. 'Hiob' in Herzog-Plitt, vi. 133) and regard chap. xxviii. as inserted by the author of Job from his 'portfolio.'
