Page:Job and Solomon (1887).djvu/170

It is not easy to interpret this little passage. Evidently the speaker is a 'wise man,' who, according to some critics, inculcates a reverent humility by reporting the fruitlessness of his own theological speculations. After long brooding over the problems of the divine nature (so they explain), the Hebrew sage was compelled to desist with the feeling of his utter incapacity. Like Israel the patriarch he strove with God, but unlike Israel he did not prevail. He knows indeed what God has done and is continually doing; He is the Omnipresent One, the Lord of wind and flood, the Author of the boundaries of the earth. But what is this great Being's name, and (to know Him intimately) what is His son's name? On this view of its meaning, the passage reminds one of the words of Goethe's Faust, 'Who can name Him, or who confess, I believe Him? Who can feel, and can be bold to say, I believe Him not?' Or perhaps we may still better compare Max Letteris' masterly Hebrew translation or adaptation, in which the medieval doctor has been transformed into Ben Abuyah (or Acher (Hebrew characters)), the famous apostate from Judaism in the second century of our era. The passage with which we are concerned as illustrative of the passage before us is on page 164, and begins (Hebrew characters). Notice the delicate tact in the choice of the second verb, 'Who can give Him an honourable surname?' (comp. Isa, xliv. 5, xiv. 4.) Later on, after other names suggested by the German original, the modern Hebrew poet continues, (Hebrew characters), and in a note refers to a parallel passage in a Hebrew poem by Ibn Gabirol.

I must make bold to doubt the correctness of this explanation. (1) Because it does not sufficiently account for the language of ver. 2. (2) Because upon this view of the questions of ver. 4, an Israelite's answer would simply be, Jehovah (comp. Job xxxviii. 5, Isa. xl. 12). (3) Because it is so difficult to see why the poet should have asked further,