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life is like the `wind' (Job 7:7; Psa. 78:39), and both use the figure of being `clothed with shame' (Job 8:22; Psa.
35:26). Both say `Thine hands have made me and fashioned me' (Job 10:8 and Psa. 119:73). Both cried:
`O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more' (Psa. 39:13).
`Let me alone ... before I go whence I shall not return' (Job 10:20,21).
There is a similarity of figures used in Job 13:21,28 and Psalm 39:10,11:
`Withdraw Thine hand far from me: and let not Thy dread make me afraid ... And he as a rotten thing, consumeth, as
a garment that is moth eaten'.
`Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand ... Thou makest his beauty to
consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity'.
That very moving passage in Job 14:15, `Thou shalt call and I will answer Thee; Thou wilt have a desire to the
work of Thine hands' finds an echo in Psalm 138:8:
`The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of
Thine own hands'.
Another parallel is that between Job 15:35 and Psalm 7:14:
`They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit' (Job 15:35).
`Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood' (Psa. 7:14).
By comparing Job 16:10 with the Messianic prophecy of Psalm 22:13, we can see that both Job and David
entered experimentally into anticipatory fellowship with the rejection of Christ:
`They gaped upon me with their mouths' (Psa. 22:13).
In such phrases as `Ye will magnify yourselves against me' (Job 19:5; Psa. 38:16), `Mine acquaintance are verily
estranged from me' (Job 19:13; Psa. 88:8), and in other parallel passages, we have sufficient evidence to conclude
that not only Moses, but David also, in their peculiar trials and problems, drew much encouragement from the record
of Job's endurance.
We trust the foregoing demonstration gives further emphasis to the importance of the book of Job. A reading of
the writings of Paul as they are found in the A.V. does not make it obvious that he must have been familiar with this
Old Testament book, but in the epistle to the Philippians there is a phrase that makes it evident that Paul was
thinking so much of the book of Job that he incorporated a portion of the Septuagint Version without giving any hint
that he was making a quotation. Here are the words found both in Philippians 1:19 and in Job 13:16:
Touto moi apobesetai eis soterian.
Just as a modern writer will betray his intense regard for Shakespeare without making an actual quotation, so
Paul, apparently, without being conscious of the fact, was finding in the sufferings and the triumph, or `perfecting'
of Job something analogous to the theme of the Philippian epistle.
Two lessons emerge from this consideration:
(1) If the apostle could find the book of Job so engrossing, and if it so evidently fits the teaching of the epistle to
the Philippians, would it not be well if we also became more acquainted with its message?
(2) If the apostle could use, as though the language were his own, the Greek of the Septuagint, and moreover, if
the Greeks in Philippi needed no comment or explanation of the Greek sentence quoted above, does not this
fact show that any attitude to the Septuagint version that would suggest that its language would be
old-fashioned and of little use in New Testament times is misleading and depriving the student of very
valuable help?