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The Hebrew ur, to raise, in Job.
A | 3: 8. Raise up leviathan.
B | 8: 6. Bildad's challenge.
C | 14: 12-14.
"So man lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be no
more they shall not awake, nor be raised out of sleep . . . . .
all the days of my appointed time will I wait until my change
come."
D | 17: 8. The innocent raise up against the hypocrite.
C | 19: 26, 27.
"After I shall awake, though this body be destroyed, yet out
of my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself."
B | 30: 29. Job's answer.
A | 41: 10. None dare raise him up (leviathan, verse 1).
The parallel is complete, and as the whole matter turns upon whether we read the
Hebrew word as "skin", or part of the verb "to raise", the balance of thought seems
clearly to point the way to a solution. The LXX appears to have attempted something in
the nature of a compromise. It has accepted the idea as we have stated it and translated
ur by anastesai, "to raise up", but it slips in the word derma, "skin", to supply the
ellipsis. The Alexandrian version reads soma, "body", instead of derma. We have
therefore the added testimony of this most ancient translation to help us.
Our special enquiry, however, is connected with the coming of the Lord. We
therefore pass over the title Redeemer, merely drawing attention to the articles on
Redemption for its meaning and fulness. Job was not limiting his vision to the truth of
the Saviour at Bethlehem, but looked on to "the latter day", a term parallel with "the last
day" of the prophets. Moreover, he looked to see his Redeemer standing in the latter day
"upon the earth". The parallel passage (Job 14: 12) tells us that this shall not take place
"till the heavens be no more", which refers to the same period as II Pet. 3: 7, 10, 11,
Rev. 20: 11, and Isa. 51: 6. Job entertained no hope of "going to heaven". He belonged
to that company who will wake after the Millennium, when "the heavens be no more".
If Job must be numbered with those who shall stand before the great white throne, and
if Job be mentioned in Scripture as an example of patience (James 5: 11), and
righteousness (Ezek. 14: 14), it but adds to the problem of those who maintain that all
who stand before the great white throne are necessarily doomed. It may be objected that
no mention is made in Job 19: of the "coming" of the Lord, and that this passage is not
relevant to the subject of this series. The references to the latter day speak of Job's
Redeemer at a period far removed from the period of His earthly life. Its close
association also with the resurrection necessitates the second coming. Job had a foretaste
of this hope even during his life. He could say: "now mine eye seeth Thee" (42: 5).
"So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (42: 12).
The proverbial beauty of his daughters, one of whom was named, "A horn for paint"
or "Paint box" (verses 14, 15), and the words of 33: 25, viz., "His flesh shall be
fresher than a child's; he shall return to the days of his youth", are consistent with the