The Wild Ass

Job 11
Zophar, the Naamathite, is the next to take up the lance against
the unhappy Job, and he seems to us to exhibit, at the outset,
more of personal exasperation against him than any of the other
parties in this great tournament of talk. It must be allowed,
however, that delicacy of imputation has never been much
regarded in the East. People say at once, bluntly and broadly,
what they think of the conduct of others, restrained only by
prudential considerations, and not much by them, as, from usage,
the strong language employed gives less offence than the more
guarded speech which custom exacts from ourselves. For
instance, to say or suggest that a man lies, is with us enough to
kindle the meekest spirit, and is with many a murderous affront;
while an Oriental will listen to the coarsest imputations of
falsehood with an undisturbed countenance. We think this
consideration important, as showing that the broad imputations of
Jobs friends were not intended and were not taken in that degree
of personal offence, which the same or even much milder
language would occasion among ourselves. In fact much is said
which, with us, would at once put a stop to all farther discussion.
But here, a personal charge only becomes a new matter of
debate, and in some degree of recrimination.
So Zophar falls upon Job open-mouthed, with censures still less
veiled than those of his predecessors. He sneers at him for his
loquaciousness, denounces him for his lies, and explicitly charges
him with the renunciation of God, or at least with gross impiety, in
daring to assert his own innocence, when the Lords righteous
judgments so plainly declare what he is. They had heard enough

of Jobs estimate of his own character; and Zophar much wishes

that the Lord would disclose to him His estimate of it. But, indeed,
he had already done so, by these his judgments, and doubtless
God had exacted far less from him than his iniquity deserved.
Zophar then launches forth into a very noble declaration of the
greatness of God, and the unsearchable wisdom of all his ways,
whence he argues not only the folly but the inexpressible
presumption of questioning his dealings with man, or of refusing
to acquiesce in his appointments. This portion of Zophars
discourse forms one of the most noted Bible passages for
reference and repetition in all ages. Note: Chalmers. It will be
observed that in it Zophar makes no attempt to explain the equity
of the Lords dealings with man, but he dwells on the greatness
and sovereignty of God, and hence deduces the duty of man to
submit with humbleness to His decrees. And certain it is, that the
more any one is enabled to realize to his own soul a sense of the
Divine perfections, the less possible it will be for him to allow a
rebellious sigh to arise, even under the severest pressure of the
Lords afflictive dispensations.
Zophar seems to soften a little towards the close, and pours in a
little oil to allay the irritation that the gall and vinegar which he had
in the first instance administered was well calculated to produce.
He still treats Job as wicked, but lets it appear that he does not
regard him as hopelessly reprobate, and assures him, that by
repentance and prayer he may yet reconcile himself to God, and,
through His blessing, be restored to a prosperous state. Then, he
says, Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters
that pass awayforget it, or have that unpainful recollection of it,
which is a species of forgetfulness. This comparison of the
passage of life, to that of a stream, is poetically very fine, and is

not infrequent with the sacred writers. Young may seem almost to
have paraphrased this text in the following admirable passage in
his Night Thoughts:
Life glides away, Lorenzo, like a brook!
Forever changing, unperceived the change.
In the same brook none ever bathed him twice;
To the same life none ever twice awoke.
We call the brook the same; the same we think
Our life, tho still more rapid in its flow,
Nor mark the much irrevocably lapsed,
And mingled with the sea. Or shall we say
(Retaining still the brook to bear us on)
That life is like a vessel on the stream?
In life embarked, we smoothly down the tide
Of time descend, but not on time intent;
Amused, unconscious of the gliding wave,
Till on a sudden we perceive a shock;
We start, awake, look out; what see we there?
Our brittle bark is burst on Charons shore.
In one place Zophar says: For vain man would be wise, though
man be born a wild asss colt. We have omitted the word of
comparison (like), which does not exist in the original, for the
omission of it renders the real comparison more emphatic. Yet it
may surprise the reader to see such an animal as the ass quoted
as the type of what is by nature untamed, rebellious, and
unsubdued. An occidental writer would certainly have chosen
some other animal for such a comparison. Yet it occurs frequently
in Scripture. So the wild and restless character of Ishmael is
indicated by his being a wild ass man, not simply a wild man,
as in the common version. Note: Gen_16:12. Farther on in this

book, Note: Job_39:5. and in the prophecy of Jeremiah

(Jer_2:24), the wild ass is described in conformity with these
intimations. That an animal known to us chiefly for its stupidity,
dullness, obstinacy, and sluggish movements, should thus be
noted for the very opposite qualitiesfor velocity, wildness, and
unsubdued spirit, may indeed well excite surprise. But in these
places it is the wild ass of which the sacred writers speak, and not
of the tame one. Between these there is a great difference. The
difference is, however, far greater between it and the domestic
ass of Europe, than between it and the tame ass of Asia. Indeed,
in the region traversed by the Tigris and Euphrates, we have seen
tame asses that made near approaches to the wild ass in shape,
color, and spirit.
From the differences in the descriptions of travellers, there would
seem to be several varieties of the wild ass, caused perhaps by
differences of climate. But it is likely these differences may, in
many cases, have arisen from variations in the age of the
animals, and in the time of the year at which the observation was
made. Without, therefore, attempting to define these variations,
we may state that the wild ass is to this day common in many
parts of Central Asia. Large herds are found about the Lake Aral
in summer, whence they migrate southward in winter, and return
northward in spring. The Persians and Tartars hold their flesh in
high esteem, and hunt them in preference to any other kind of
game. It is found west of the Euphrates. Indeed, the species
improves as it comes westward, the wild asses of Syria being
finer than those of Persia, and that about the Bahar-el-Abaid in
Africa being the finest of all. Burckhardt informs us that wild asses
are found in great numbers in Arabia Petraea, about the gulf of
Akaba, where the Arabs hunt them, and eat their flesh, but not
before strangers. They sell their skins and hoofs to the inhabitants

of Damascus, and to the people of the Hauran. The hoofs furnish

materials for rings, which are worn by the peasants on their
thumbs, or fastened under their arm-pits, as amulets against
rheumatism. It is said that the wild ass never drinks. The allusion
to it therefore, in Jer_14:6, most forcibly depicts the scarcity of
food, when animals inured to the desert, and to want of water, are
made the prominent examples of suffering. It does not appear that
any wild ass has ever been secured alive and brought to Europe,
a fact which singularly corroborates, both its fleetness and
intractable character. The best account of an interview with a wild
ass is that of Sir Robert Ker Porter, and we copy it for the readers
entertainment.
The Wild Ass

The sun was just rising over the summits of the eastern
mountains, when my greyhound started off in pursuit of an animal,
which, my Persians said, from the glimpse they had of it, was an
antelope. I instantly put spurs to my horse, and, with my
attendants, gave chase. After an unrelaxed gallop of three miles,
we came up with the dog, who was then within a short stretch of
the animal he pursued, and to my surprise, and at first vexation, I

saw it to be an ass. Upon a moments reflection, however, judging

from its fleetness that it must be a wild one, a creature little known
in Europe, but which the Persians prize above all other animals as
an object of chase, I determined to approach as near to it as the
very swift Arab I was on would carry me. But the single instant of
checking my horse to consider, had given our game such a head
of us, that notwithstanding all our speed, we could not recover our
ground on him. I however happened to be considerably before my
companions, when, it a certain distance, the animal in his turn
made a pause, and allowed me to approach within pistol shot of
him. He then darted off again with the quickness of thought,
capering, kicking, and sporting in his flight, as if he was not blown
in the least, and the chase was his pastime. When my followers of
the country came up, they regretted that I had not shot the
creature when he was within my aim, telling me that his flesh is
one of the greatest delicacies in Persia. The prodigious swiftness
and peculiar manner in which he fled across the plain, coincided
exactly with the description that Xenophon gives of the same
animal in Arabia; but, above all, it reminded me of the striking
portrait drawn by the author of the Book of Job. I was informed by
the Mehmandar, who had been in the desert when making a
pilgrimage to the shrine of Ali, that the wild ass of Irak Arabi differs
in nothing from the one I had just seen. He had observed them
often for a short time in the possession of the Arabs, who told him
the creature was perfectly untamable. A few days after this
discussion, we saw another of these animals, and pursuing it
determinedly had the good fortune to kill it.