Excerpt from An Inductive Study of the Metaphorical Language in the Book of Job Stedman calls the book of Job the sublimest poem of antiquity, with no peak near it, and declares that it is both epic and dramatic, embodying the whole wisdom of the patri archal race.1 The narrative prelude to Job, he goes on to say, has the direct epic simplicity - a Cyclopean porch to the temple, but within are Heaven, the angels, the plumed Lord of Evil, before the throne of a judicial God. The personages of the dialogue beyond are firmly distinguished Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu and the smitten protagonist himself, majestic in ashes and desolation. Each outvies the other in grandeur of language, imagination, worship. Can there be a height beyond these lofty utterances? Yes: only in this poem God answered out of the whirlwind, His voice made audible, as if an added range of hearing for a space enabled us to comprehend the reverberations of a super-human tone. Moulton voices his appreciation of the poem as fol lows: If a jury of persons well instructed in literature, were impanelled to pronounce upon the question 'what is the greatest poem in the world's great literature, ' while on such a question unanimity would be impossible, yet I believe a large majority would give their verdict in favor of the book of J ob.' 3 Delitzsch names it the Melchizedek among the Old Testament books, and maintains that it is a masterpiece of systematic creative art. Carlyle thinks There is nothing written with pen, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.