Who can understand the outspreading of his clouds,
And the fearful thunderings in his tent?

Behold, he encompasseth it with lightnings,
And covereth with floods the depths of the sea.
By these he executeth judgment upon the people,
And giveth also their food abundantly.

With his hands he holdeth the lightnings,

And commandeth them where they shall strike.
He pointeth out to them the wicked;

The evil-doer is the prey of his wrath.

E. All these images will occur in a more concise and beautiful form in the language of God, that follows.--The tempest is now rising upon them, and Elihu proceeds-

Therefore my heart is terrified,

And leaps from its place with alarm.
Hear ye! O hear with trembling his voice,
The word, that goeth out of his mouth.

It goeth abroad under the whole heaven,
And his lightning to the ends of the earth.
Behind him sound aloud his thunders,
He uttereth the voice of his majesty,
And we cannot explore his thunderings.
God thundereth marvellously with his voice,
He doeth wonders, which we cannot comprehend.
He saith to the snow, be thou upon the earth,

To the dropping shower, and the outpouring of his might ;
So that all men acknowledge his work.

A. In the last words I like better the interpretation--He puts the seal upon the hand of every man, that is, they stand astounded and amazed, feeling, that they are powerless--a feeling, that every thunder-shower awakens in us. E. The terrors of the storm are farther described.

The wild beast fleeth to his cave,

He cowers himself down in his den.

Now cometh the whirlwind from the South,

And now his brightness rendeth the clouds,

His light scattereth the clouds afar.

They wheel about in their course as he willeth,
They go to accomplish his commands

Upon all the face of the earth.

We must be Orientals in order to estimate the good effects of rain, and to paint with such careful observation, the features and the course of the clouds.--It is obviously a present scene, which Elihu is describing in what follows-

Attend! O Job, and hear this,

Stand and consider the wonders of God.
Knowest thou how God disposeth them,
How he kindleth up the light of his clouds.?
Knowest thou how the clouds are swayed-
The marvellous doings of the all-wise?
How thy garments become warm to thee,
When he warmeth the earth from the South
Hast thou with him spread out the firmament,
That stands strong and like a molten mirror?
Teach us what we shall say to him,

We cannot speak by reason of darkness.
Shall it be told to him when I speak?

Let one open his mouth-Lo! he is gone,
His light is no longer beheld.

His splendour is behind the clouds;

The wind passeth, and they are dispersed.
Now cometh the gold from the North,
The fear-awakening glory of Eloah.
As for the Almighty, we cannot find him,
The great, the powerful judge,

Unspeakable in righteousness.

Therefore do men reverence him,

The wisest behold him not.

་

E. The consequence of the young pretender's forwardness you perceive is, that he shows that to be impossible, which

in the face of his declaration is on the point of taking place. At the moment, when he is convincing himself, that the darkness of the clouds is a perpetual barrier between men and God, and that no mortal shall ever hear the voice of the Eternal, God appears and speaks-and how vast the difference between the words of Jehovah and the language of Elihu ! It is but the feeble, prolix babbling of a child, in comparison with the brief and majestick tones of thunder, in which the Creator speaks.--He disputes not, but produces a succession of living pictures, surrounds, astonishes, and overwhelms the faculties of Job with the objects of his inanimate and animated creation.

A.

Jehovah spake to Job from out of the tempest, and said to him,

Who is it, that darkeneth the counsels of God

By words without knowledge?

Gird up thy loins like a man;

I will ask thee, teach thou me.

Where wast thou,

When I founded the earth?

Tell me, if thou knowest.

Who fixed the measure of it? dost thou know?

Who stretched the line upon it?

Whereon stand its deep foundations?

Who laid the corner-stone thereof,

When the morning stars sang in chorus

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

E. We forget the geology and all the physics of more modern times, and contemplate these images, as the ancient poetry of nature respecting the earth. Like a house it has its foundations laid, its dimensions are fixed, and the line is stretched upon it: and, when its foundations are sunk, and its corner-stone is laid in its place, all the children of God, the morning stars, his elder offspring, chant a song of joy to the great architect and the glad welcoming of their younger sister. Next follows the birth of the sea,

A.

Who wrapped up the sea in swaddling clothes
When it broke forth from the mother's womb?
I gave it the clouds for garments,

I swathed it in mists and darkness,
I fixed my decrees upon it,

And placed them for gates and bars.

I said thus far shalt thou come, and no farther,
Here shalt thou dash thy stormy waves.

E. I do not believe, that this object was ever represented under a bolder figure, than that, by which it is here expressed, of an infant, which the Creator of the world swathes and clothes with its appropriate garments. It bursts forth from the clefts of the earth, as from the womb of its mother, the ruler and director of all things addresses it as a living being, as a young giant exulting in his subduing power, and with a word the sea is hushed, and obeys him for ever.

A.

Hast thou in thy lifetime commanded the dawn?
And taught the day-spring to know its place,
That it seize on the far corners of the earth,
And scatter the robbers before it?

Like clay the form of things is changed by it,
They stand forth, as if clothed with ornament.
From the wicked their light is taken away,
Their haughty arm is broken.

E. It is unfortunate, that we cannot more clearly represent the dawn, as a watchman, a messenger of the Prince of heaven, sent to chase away the bands of robbers--how different the office from that, which the Western nations assigned to their Aurora ! It points us to ancient times of violence, when terror and robbery anticipated the dawn.*

A.

Hast thou entered into the caverns of the sea?

* It is still the custom of the Arabs to go out on plundering excursions before dawn.

Hast thou explored the hollow depths of the abyss?
Have the gates of death opened for thee?

And hast thou seen the doors of non-existence ?
Is thy knowledge as broad as the earth?
Show me, if thou knowest it all.

Where dwelleth the light? where is the way to it?
And the darkness, where is its place?

That thou mayest reach even the limits thereof,
For thou knowest the path to its house,

Thou knowest, for thou wast already born,
And the number of thy days is great.

E. Every thing here is personified, the light, the darkness, death and nothingness. These have their palaces with bars and gates, those their houses, their kingdoms and boundaries. The whole is a poetical world and a poetical geography.

A.

E.

Hast thou been into the store-house of the snow?

And seen the treasury of the hail,

Which I have laid up for the time of need,

For the day of war and of slaughter?

A vein of irony runs through the whole passage. God fears the attack of his enemies, and has furnished and secured his vaulted treasury of hail as the armoury of war. In the clouds too, as well as in the abyss, every thing breathes of poetry.

A.

Where doth the light divide itself,

When the East wind streweth it upon the earth?
Who divided the water courses of heaven?

And traced a path for the storms of thunder?
To bring rain upon lands, where no man dwelleth,

Upon deserts, which no man in habiteth,

To refresh the wilderness, and the barren place,
And cause the tender herb to spring forth.
Who is the father of the rain?

The drops of dew, who hath generated them?

From whose womb came forth the ice;