_Judgment. Job had frequently acknowledged that God could not be in the wrong. But he had expressed himself in to forcible language, of which God makes him, as it were, ashamed. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "rejectest thou not my decision? yea, dost thou think that I have judged thee in a different mann... [ Continue Reading ]
_Scatter. Septuagint is shorter: (Calmet) "Send angels or messengers in wrath, and humble every insulting person. 7. Extinguish the proud, destroy the wicked at once. 8. Hide them in the earth together, and fill their faces with shame." (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pit, or grave. Cause the earth to swallow them up, and I will confess thy power. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Behemoth; the elephant, (Challoner) "as some think." (Protestants' marginal note) (Haydock) --- This is the most common opinion, though Sanchez explains it of the bull; and Bochart, after Beza and Diodati, declares in favour of the hippopotamus, (Calmet) or "river horse." Parkhurst even thinks Bocha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Loins. The towers were fastened here by an iron chain. --- Belly. Yet it is nowhere so easily wounded, 1 Machabees vi. 45. (Pliny, viii. 20.) --- Hence some would translate Hebrew, "and its pain in the belly," (Calmet) as it is only subject to an inflammation and flux; profluvium alvi. (Pliny) (\'c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Tail, which is very small, and without hair. (Calmet) --- Vavassor rather thinks "the trunk" is meant. (Du Hamel)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Gristle. Hebrew again, "bones." (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "back-bone, like cast iron."_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Beginning, or prince. (Haydock) --- The elephant may be considered as the king of beasts for strength, agility, gratitude, longevity, &c. None approaches so near to man. (Pliny viii. 1.; Calmet; Lipsius, 1 ep. 50.; Amama) --- Sword; which is the rhinoceros, killing the elephant under the belly with... [ Continue Reading ]
_Play. No animal is of a milder nature. It never attacks, unless in its own defence. When a crowd of other beasts obstruct its passage, it removes them quietly with its proboscis. (Pliny vi. 9., &c.)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Places, insomuch that \'c6lian (iv. 24.) styles it a "beast of the marshes." It is fabulous that it is forced to sleep against a tree, as if it could not rise without much difficulty. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, (14) "This is the beginning or chief ( Greek: arche) of the creation of the Lord, being ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wonder. Hebrew, "make haste," taking time to render it muddy. (\'c6lian xiv. 44.) --- It can drink a great deal at once, and then abstain for a week. (Calmet) --- Run. Hebrew, "he may draw." Septuagint, "may knock at his mouth," (Haydock) in vain, (Calmet) as long as it can breathe by holding by ho... [ Continue Reading ]
Stakes. Serpents attack the eyes of the elephant, and sometimes drag it by the trunk into the deep, where it is drowned. (Pliny viii. 12.; Solin xxxviii.) --- Others read with an interrogation: "Shall one take?" &c. Will any one dare to attack it openly? The elephant is taken by stratagem, either in... [ Continue Reading ]
Leviathan: the whale, or some sea monster. (Challoner) --- Protestants' marginal note, "or a whirlpool." (Haydock) --- But some animal is designated; and Bochart understands the crocodile, which agrees very well with the context. The Thalmudists also say that the calbish is a small fish, which gets... [ Continue Reading ]
_Buckle. Literally, "bracelet," ( armilla.; Haydock) or ring. Horses were thus ornamented, (Virgil vii. 7.) and other beasts led about. But this fierce animal could not be tamed. Hebrew, "Wilt thou put a rush through its gills, or nose, or pierce its jaw with a thorn?" like those little fishes which... [ Continue Reading ]
_Will it lay aside its ferocity, (Haydock) and flatter thee? (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Handmaids? or little girls. (Calmet) Septuagint, "Wilt thou tie it like a sparrow for thy boy?" (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Friends. Hebrew also, (Haydock) "enchanters." (Calmet) --- Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis. (Virgil, Eclogues viii.) --- Septuagint, "the nations." --- Merchants. Septuagint, "the generation of the Ph\'9cnicians (Hebrew) of Chanaan, (Haydock) famous for merchandise, (Calmet) insomuch th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cabins, ( gurgustium) the reservoir or basket. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "Canst thou fill his skin with barbed prongs, (for which they have now irons) or his head with fish spears?" --- But this is hardly the meaning of the original, chap. xli. 6. Hebrew, "wilt thou fill tents with its skin, or the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Speak. Hebrew, "do." (Haydock) --- Thy rash attempt will prove thy ruin. If thou escape, thou wilt not dare to engage again. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "Wilt thou lay thy hand upon it, remembering the battle with its body? and let it not be done any more. (28.) Hast thou not seen it, nor been astonis... [ Continue Reading ]
_Down, whoever engages in the conflict, (Menochius) except the bold citizens of Tentyra. All the rest are terrified at the very sight. Hence the Egyptians have ever given divine honours to the crocodile. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XL.... [ Continue Reading ]