The Outbreak

Job 3
The long silence is at last broken. It is Job that
speaks. Hear him. Is this the man who but lately
uttered in his deep distress, words worthy of being
engraven upon the rocks, and fit to be proclaimed
over our graves? We may almost, at the first view,
say with his friends, that we know him not as the
same man we knew before, so altered is the moral
feeling which his utterances now indicate. Some
profess to be greatly astonished at his passionate
outbreak, overlooking the antecedent circumstances
which we have pointed out as preparing for it, and
leading us to look for it. The thoughts and feelings to
which he now gives vent, had already been passing
through and nestling in his mind. Hitherto he had
labored against them, and had refused to give them
utterance. But they had gathered strength in silent
brooding over his sorrows and humiliations, in the
presence of friends from afar, to whom he had been
wont to give a noble reception, killing for them the
fatted calf, and from whom he had been used to
receive a most different greeting. He probably
perceived the bent of their thoughts and to have

sunk so low in the presence of these his peers, to

have become to them in object of compassion,
mingled with irrepressible disgust, and shaded by
dark suspicions, proved at length too much for him,
and the torrent of his hard complaints gushed forth.
We have shown the change to be less abrupt than is
usually supposed; it may be that it is also less
complete. It is in fact rather a progression than a
change. Calvin, so learned in all matters touching
mans inner life, well remarks, that if we consider the
case well, and examine thoroughly, we find a
combat, wherein mans infirmity shows itself on the
one hand, while, on the other, some strength to
resist temptation still remains. Hitherto we have
seen nothing but strength and constancy in Job; but
now there is a mixture, for the infirmity of his flesh
so overcomes him as to constrain him to murmur
against the Lord, while yet he adheres to Him, and
has no thoughts of departing from Him.
Nevertheless, he gives utterance to hard words and
evil thoughtswhich cannot be justifiedand
proceeding from a heart no longer wholly right
before God. The state to which this afflicted man has
come is, then, that in which he is less steadfast than
he was before; and in which he so far succumbs in

this high conflict as to show that he is still a frail

man, not able to sustain his temptation as he fain
would do, nor to submit himself to God with that
resolute serenity which was required from him, and
which he had before most nobly exemplified.
Again, this great master in Israel, vindicating Job
from those who regard him as altogether an altered
man, so as to have forgotten his former patience, as
angry with God, and as no longer minded to glorify
Him, observes that: It is certain Job has not come to
such extremity as this. It is still his desire and
purpose to obey God. Nevertheless, there is now a
mixture and conflict of interests in his soul. In this
conflict he fails not to be wounded, he seems not to
receive blows, he staggers, he steps awry. He has not
so sound a perfection as before; and yet, although his
affliction pinched him sore, so that he was likely to
faint in the midst of the way, he still held on his
course, with a fixed purpose to obey God, although
meanwhile he failed to realize all the good that he
desired. There is a memorable text in which St. Paul
confesses, that although all his desire was to give
himself unto God, yet, notwithstanding, it came not
so to pass; for he was hindered by his own nature,
which was over-weak. Now, if Paul acknowledged

this much of himself, let it not be thought strange

that the like should happen to Job, so as that he
should be desirous to conform himself to the good
will of God, and yet that his affections should not be
in all points so perfect but that he stooped and
halted in his course.
The language of Jobs opening address, is certainly
that of bitter lamentation and despair. He curses the
day in which he was born, using, a great variety of
strong, harsh, and, if literally understood,
reprehensible language, to show the deep detestation
in which he regarded it, because it did not prevent
his birth, and save him from sorrow and despair. He
passionately asks why he did not die as soon as he
was bornwhy any care was taken to preserve an
existence doomed to be so wretched? He expatiates
with much beauty upon the peace, the rest, in which
he should have lain, had this happened to him; and
then he breaks forth again into bitter complaint that
life should be given to one who does not want it, but
covets death beyond all precious things. In this he
goes farther than hitherto, as it implies, if it does not
express, a reflection upon the Lord, as one who had
been less than just and merciful to him; and towards
the close he lets out the interesting fact, that his life

had been haunted by a vague fear and presentiment

of an adverse change in his condition, and now, far
more than the worst of all he had feared had come
upon him.
Having thus stated the substance of Jobs speech, we
shall direct attention to some remarkable points in
it. And this course we mean to follow throughout, as
our plan does not admit of the same extended
development of particulars, which it has allowed in
the historical or introductory portion.
With regard to the mere fact of Jobs cursing the day
of his birth, and so forth, this is much less offensive
than some of his subsequent utterances. It is less
offensive in poetry, which allows the boldest
expression to strong emotion, than it would be in
prose; and far less so to an Oriental than to a
European imagination. The feelings of grief, of
despair, of hate, of joy, which with us are vented in
the simplest forms of expression, are in the East
carried to the utmost limits of language and thought,
are applied in all their possible circumstances. How
often do we hear one say, under comparatively light
afflictions or discontents, I wish I were dead; or, I
wish I had never been born; and although we regard

them as culpable expressions of discontent, they

make no very strong impression upon our mind, and
are scarcely regarded as outrageous, atrocious, or
rebellious against God. Yet this is neither more nor
less than what the Oriental means; and the
impression which his words made upon those who
hear him, is scarcely stronger, when, in vehement
and high language, he curses the day of his birth,
and all connected with it, or under a multitude of
pathetic and despairing images, invokes the rest of
the grave. That this kind of language was not
regarded as more heinous than such phrases in
common use as we have produced, is shown by the
fact that (not to mention other instances), the
prophet Jeremiah curses his days in terms as hot
and passionate, though less amplified, as does our
patriarch in this place, and for the very same reason
too; Because he came into the world to see labor
and sorrow, and that his days were consumed with
shame. Job is certainly not more to be blamed than
Jeremiahperhaps less, for the prophet possessed
the light of a brighter revelation than was afforded to
the patriarch. But both are more excusable in these
their fervid utterances, than is the Christian in even
the comparatively tame murmurings for death, or
regrets for life, which he gives forth, seeing that to

him have been granted far stronger consolations

under afflictions, and supports in adversity, and far
higher evidences of the Divine love, than any of the
ancient saints were permitted to enjoy.