Job 19:23,24 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Oh that they were printed in a book!— The sense of these words, according to the translation of Schultens, is this: "Who now will write my words? Who will record them in a book? Let them be engraven on some sepulchral stone, with an iron pen and with lead, so as to last for ever." The word rock, which our translators have made use of, seems to me to be more just than that used by Schultens. It is certain that the word צור zur, signifies in other places of the Book of Job a rock; and never there, or anywhere else in the Scripture that I am aware of, does it signify a small sepulchral stone, or monumental pillar. Nor can the using of this term appear strange, if we consider the extreme antiquity of the Book of Job; since it is easy to imagine that the first inscriptions on stone were engraven on some places of the rocks which were accidentally smoothed and made pretty even; and, in fact, we find some that are very ancient engraven on the natural rock, and, which is remarkable, in Arabia, where it is supposed that Job lived. This is one of the most curious observations in that account of the Prefetto of Egypt which was published by the Bishop of Clogher; and it is, in my apprehension, an exquisite confirmation of our version. The Prefetto, speaking in his journal of his disengaging himself from the mountains of Paran, says, "We came, at length, to a large plain, surrounded with high hills; at the foot of which we reposed ourselves in our tents at about half an hour after ten. These hills are called Gebel-el-Mokatab, i.e. the Written Mountains; for, as soon as we had parted from the mountains of Paran, we passed by several others for an hour together, engraved with ancient unknown characters, which were cut into the hard marble rock, so high as to be in some places at twelve or fourteen feet distance from the ground; and though we had in our company persons who were acquainted with the Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Latin, Armenian, Turkish, &c. languages, yet none of them had any knowledge of these characters; which have nevertheless been cut into the hard rock with the greatest industry, in a place where there is neither water, nor any thing that can be gotten to eat." When I consider this nature of the place, and compare it with the account that Maillet gives us of the great burying-place of the Egyptians, which is called the plain of mummies, and which, according to him, is a dry sandy circular plain, no less than four leagues over; and when I recollect the account which Maundrell gives of figures and inscriptions which, like these, are engraven on tables planed in the natural rock, and at some height above the road, which he found near the river Lycus, and which, he tells us, seemed to resemble mummies, and related, as he imagined, to some sepulchres thereabouts;—I should be ready to suppose that this must be some very ancient burying-place. Such a supposition justifies the explanation of Dr. Grey as to the alluding in these words to a sepulchral inscription, but would engage us to retain the English translation, as to the term rock, in contradistinction to monumental pillars, or grave-stones cut from the quarry. Be this as it may, it is certain that there are in Arabia several inscriptions in the natural rock, and that this way of writing is very durable; for these engravings, it seems, have outlived the knowledge of the characters made use of. The practice was for the same reason very ancient: and if these letters are not so ancient as the days of Moses, as the Bishop of Clogher thinks they are, yet these inscriptions might very well be the continuation of a practice in use in the days of Job, and may therefore be thought to be referred to in these words. But, however happy our translators have been in using the word rock in the 24th verse, it is certain that they have been far otherwise in the 23rd, as to the word printed. It was absurd to employ a term which expresses what was invented but three or four hundred years ago; and especially as it does not, even by an improper expression, convey the idea of Job, which was, the perpetuating of his words, as is evident from the foregoing verse; Records, to which Job refers, being written, not printed, among us. These Written Arabian mountains very agreeably illustrate these words in part, and perhaps but in part; for it does not appear from the accounts of the Prefetto, with what view lead is mentioned here. Dr. Grey supposes that the letters, being hollowed in the rock with the iron pen, or chissel, were filled up with melted lead in order to be more legible; but it does not appear that any of these inscriptions are so filled up. Indeed, though some of them are engraven, most of those which Bishop Pococke observed near Mount Sinai were not cut, but stained, by making the granite of a lighter colour; which stain, he had an opportunity of being satisfied, sunk some depth into the stone: whether this was done with lead, let the curious determine. I shall only observe, that the LXX do not explain this at all, though the painting of granite rocks was anciently very common in Egypt, and those painting (stainings, or mere incrustations, as Norden took them to be) were extremely durable. "This sort of paintings," says Norden, "has neither shade nor gradation. The figures are incrustated like the cyphers on the dial-plates of watches; with this difference, that they cannot be detached. I must own, that this incrustated matter surpasses in strength, all that I have seen of this kind. It is superior to the al-fresco and Mosaic work; and, indeed, has the advantage of lasting a longer time. It is something surprising to see how gold, ultra marine, and divers other colours, have preserved their lustre to the present age. Perhaps I shall be asked how all these lively colours could soften together; and I must own that it is a question which I am unable to decide." If Job, in this place, referred to the writing with these durable staining materials on the rocks, the LXX did not understand him so to do; they seem rather to have supposed that he meant the recording of things by engraving them on plates of lead. Who will cause my words to be written, to be put in a book which shall last for ever? with an iron pen and lead, (i.e. upon lead) or to be engraven on the rocks? which cutting of letters on lead marks out an ancient method indeed of perpetuating the memory of things, but is very different from that which Bishop Pococke saw had anciently obtained in Arabia, the country of Job, and to which, therefore, his words may possibly refer. See Observations, p. 300. I would just observe, that the original words rendered and lead, which give this ingenious author to much trouble, are marked with a cross to denote their being doubtful as to the reading, and accordingly Mr. Heath omits them in his translation: That they were graven with an iron style; that they were cut in the rock to perpetuity!