Skin for Skin\u2014Job_2:1-6<\/p>\n
Once more the sacred writer conducts us to the courts of heaven. Satan is there; and the Voice from the throne speaks to him respecting Job, declaring emphatically, that there was \u201cnone like him in the earth;\u201d and, alluding to the late transactions, the Lord says\u2014\u201cAnd still he holdeth fast his integrity, though thou movedst Me against him to destroy him without cause.\u201d What can the enemy say to this? Is he not dumb with shame and confusion? Not he. He ventures to insinuate that Job had come forth with honor in his trial, only because he had not been touched in his own person. \u201cSkin for skin,\u201d said he, \u201cyea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to thy face.\u201d Upon this, the Lord, not seeing fit to leave the enemy this subterfuge, and confident that the faith of Job would bear yet further trial, allowed the adversary power over the body of this good man, but not unto death. \u201cBehold he is in thine hand but save his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may seem difficult, without some explanation, to attach an intelligible idea to the phrase \u201cskin for skin,\u201d apparently proverbial, which Satan employed. It is a phrase that passes glibly over the tongue in the reading, and which most people have some vague impression that they do understand, and pass on without pausing to consider it. If they do, the more intently they regard it, the more difficult and unintelligible it seems, while there appears to be something in it which it were worth while to know. It is peculiarly the case of such proverbial expressions as this to pass out of intelligent knowledge. The reason is, that being established in use among the people, they continue to be employed in the correct traditional sense long after the custom to which they allude, or the knowledge of the circumstance in which they originated, have passed away. There are many such in our own language, correctly applied in current usage, but from one or both of these causes unintelligible, without antiquarian elucidation, in their primary aspect as a form of words. What meaning could any one attach, for instance, to such common English proverbs as these, if not taught to apply them with a traditional meaning and significance?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe black ox never yet trod on his feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHang not all your bells upon one horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gray mare is the better horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPaternoster built churches, and Our Father pulled them down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBlessed is the eye between Severn and Wye.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMake a pearl in your nail.\u201d <\/p>\n
Again, there is another set of such phrases which we meet with in old books in such connection as shows them to have been proverbial, but having passed out of ordinary use, they have not even an intelligible meaning or application, unless so far as the context enables us to guess at it. At the first view this proverb of \u201cskin for skin\u201d may seem to belong to this class. And so it would, were it an English proverb; or \u201cJob\u201d an English book. But it is a literal translation of a most ancient book, written in a far-off land, and in a language and under a set of ideas and customs altogether different from our own. Besides, therefore, being obscure in its primary aspect and in its traditional significance, we have the further difficulty of its being probably founded on an idea or custom altogether foreign to us, and which for that reason alone, if the other causes had no existence, it would be difficult or impossible to discover. There are at this day in current use in the East, scores of proverbs which are perfectly intelligible, both in their allusions and application, to those who use them, but which would, from this cause alone, be utterly inexplicable to an Englishman.<\/p>\n
Take a few examples of Arabic proverbs\u2014\u201cMoonshine and oil are the ruin of a house.\u201d How many would guess that this means that to light the lamp when the moon shines is an extravagance that will bring ruin upon a family: and hence, by application, a general rebuke to wasteful extravagance?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is written upon the cucumber leaf,\u201d is in Egypt a common phrase used in introducing some sage maxim. Few would suppose that this means no more than, \u201cIt is written where the meanest may read it;\u201d and in this sense it would be inappropriate in a country where cucumbers are less abundant and cheap.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went away with the fat of the kidney.\u201d This means that the person went away, taking even the smallest trifle of what was due to him; founded upon the usage that when a private person slays a sheep, one of the bystanders takes away the kidneys, or at least the fat of them, as due to the public from him who slaughters the sheep.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is Oweyshe in the market of cotton yarn?\u201d This signifies that a person, however great or famous in his own neighborhood, becomes of no account when he enters the great world. Oweyshe is a woman\u2019s name; and the allusion is to the custom for women to take in the morning, to a particular market for sale, the cotton yarn which they have spun in their domestic retirement.<\/p>\n
These are perhaps sufficient illustrations, and will serve to show that there are proverbs in the East, and quite intelligible there, which are to us altogether as obscure from deficient knowledge as this of \u201cskin for skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
We have entered into this matter somewhat fully, as there are other phrases, especially proverbial phrases, in the Scriptures, to which the same considerations will apply. That which has been stated will show the difficulty of supplying a satisfactory explanation of such passages. We shall not, however, quit the one before us without any attempt at an explanation. Of many that have been given, perhaps the best is that which refers its origin back to the time when trade was conducted by barter or exchange of goods, and when the skins of animals being a most frequent and valuable commodity, were used in some sort to represent property, as is still the case in many parts of the world. Tributes, ransoms, and the like, used also to be often paid in skins. Under this view, it would seem that Satan, after his proverbial allusion to the principle of exchange or barter, makes application of it in the next clause, \u201call that man hath will he give for his life.\u201d It will then express the necessity of submitting to one great evil to avoid incurring a greater, answering to the Turkish proverb, \u201cWe must give our beards to save our heads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Autor: JOHN KITTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Skin for Skin\u2014Job_2:1-6 Once more the sacred writer conducts us to the courts of heaven. Satan is there; and the Voice from the throne speaks to him respecting Job, declaring emphatically, that there was \u201cnone like him in the earth;\u201d and, alluding to the late transactions, the Lord says\u2014\u201cAnd still he holdeth fast his integrity, … Continue reading ““441. SKIN FOR SKIN\u2014JOB 2:1-6””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}