[43]. On ‘drinks’ see Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 319.
[44]. The text (which has ‘His words’) is generally rendered ‘because He gives not account of any of His matters,’ i.e. of the details of His government. This is very strained; the Sept. has ‘my words,’ the Vulgate ‘thy words,’ either of which readings gives a natural sense.
[45]. See 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, and comp. 1 Chr. xxi. 15, Ps. xxviii. 49, Prov. xvi. 14, Ezek. ix. 1, x. 7; also Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums, i. 304. For Assyria see Records of the Past, i. 131-5: iv. 53-60 (the sinner was thought to be given up in displeasure by his God into the hands of the evil spirits). For Arabia see Korán, lxxix. 1, 2—
‘By those (angels) who tear out (souls) with violence,
And by those who joyously release them:’
for the early Christian, Justin M. Dial. e. Tryph. 105, τὰ αὐτὰ αἰτῶμεν τὸν θεὸν, τὸν δυνάμενον ἀποστρέψαι πάντα ἀναιδῆ πονηρὸν ἄγγελον μὴ λαβέσθαι ἡμῶν τῆς ψυχῆς: and for the medieval, Dante, Inferno, xxvii. 112-123: Purgatorio, v. 103-108. Comp. below, Chap. X.
[46]. Blake seems to have felt Elihu’s strong faith in the angels. The border of his 12th illustration is filled with a stream of delicate angel forms.
[47]. Davidson. Ewald explains the ‘ransom’ partly of the intercession of the angel, partly of the prayer of repentance.
[48]. Turner, Studies Biblical and Oriental, p. 146.
[49]. Cox, Commentary on the Book of Job, p. 489.