and Job's children, servants, and animals are destroyed by a fire from heaven, and by a great wind.
Eliphaz, like the priests in the Aztec legend, thinks he sees in all this the chastening hand of God:
"17. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
"18. For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole." (Chap. v.)
We are reminded of the Aztec prayer, where allusion is made to the wounded and sick in the cave "whose mouths were full of earth and scurf." Doubtless, thousands were crushed, and cut, and wounded by the falling stones, or burned by the fire, and some of them were carried by relatives and friends, or found their own way, to the shelter of the caverns.
"20. In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
"21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh." (Chap. v.)
"The scourge of the tongue" has no meaning in this context. There has probably been a mistranslation at some stage of the history of the poem. The idea is, probably, "You are hid in safety from the scourge of the comet, from the tongues of flame; you need not be afraid of the destruction that is raging without."
"22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
"23. For thou shalt be in league with THE STONES OF THE FIELD: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee." (Chap. v.)