CLAY. 341 



want of the local antiquarian knowledge which the ancient cylinders, 

 recently dug up at Babylon, supply ; and Dr. Good himself, in this 

 instance (however admirably he has, in other respects, treated his 

 subject), is, from the same cause, not a whit more successful than 

 his predecessors. His version of the passage in question is 



Within thy days hast them ordained the dawn, 



And appointed to the day-spring his post, 



That they should lay gold on the skirts of the earth, 



And evil-doers be terrified away from it? 



Canst thou cause them to bend round as clay to the mould ? 



So that they are made to set like^a garment? 



As the sense of these verses is obscure, as it differs from the 

 rendering of every other Hebrew scholar that I have consulted, and 

 does not appear consistent with common sense or itself, even with 

 the help of two pages of notes, I shall venture to argue, that it 

 cannot be the true meaning of the original. We may safely believe 

 that evil-doers were not, in the days of Job, any more than at pre- 

 sent, terrified away from skirts, or other places, where gold was 

 laid. Neither does the substitution of mould for seed at all clear the 

 sense, but the contrary ; for Dr. Good, remarking on this verse, says, 

 * Canst thou cause them to bend round as clay to the mould ? ' would 

 be rather more literally rendered if the to were omitted, and if it 

 were written, 'Canst thou cause them to bend round as clay the 

 mould ? ' But here again, in his aversion to the idea of a seal, he 

 says this really means, not as clay causes the mould to bend round, 

 but 'as the mould doth clay.' 



I shall now request attention whilst I, fact by fact, and inference 

 by inference, pursue the meaning of these verses, in the manner 

 that appears to me the most simple and perspicuous ; at the same 

 time not disregarding that impressive opening of the chapter con- 

 taining them, which, to the end of time, should sound awfully in 

 the ears of biblical critics. 



The chapter begins, 'Then the Lord answered Job out of the 

 whirlwind, and said, * Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words 

 without knowledge ? ' and after those grand interrogations which 

 have been so frequently admired, respecting the formation of the 

 earth, clouds, and sea, he proceeds : ' Hast thou commanded the 

 morning since thy days? Hast thou caused the day-spring to 

 know his place that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that 

 the wicked might be shaken out of it? ' 



Some slight degree of confusion between the light of morning, 

 and that religious light, or day-spring of truth and justice, to which 

 it is likened, must here be confessed to exist (at least in the Eng- 

 lish translation); and for the transition from literal light, to light 

 personified and invested with knowledge and. power, the idiom of 

 the Hebrew language, or the elevated ardor of the poet's imagina- 

 tion, must be accountable. If it is not critical, it is grand ; and 

 scarcely does the want of grammatical construction throw even a 

 faint shade over the general meaning of the sentence ; nor does it 



