The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

iii. I -2 1.] THE MAN THAT HATH SEEN AFFLICTION 187
the atmosphere of those who long since lost the
last rays of the light of life 1 There the prisoner is
bound by a heavy chain,^ He cries for help ; but he
is shut down so low that his prayer cannot reach his
Captor.^
Again we see him still hampered, though in altered
circumstances. He appears as a traveller whose way
is blocked, and that not by some accidental fall of rock,
but of set purpose, for he finds the obstruction to be
of carefully prepared masonry, " hewn stones." ^ Therefore
he has to turn aside, so that his paths become
crooked. Yet more terrible does the Divine enmity
grow. When the pilgrim is thus forced to leave the
highroad and make his way through the adjoining
thickets his Adversary avails Himself of the cover to
assume a new form, that of a lion or a bear lying in
ambush.* The consequence is that the hapless man
is torn as by the claws and fangs of beasts of prey.^
But now these wild regions in which the wretched
traveller is wandering at the peril of his life suggest
the idea of the chase. The image of the savage animals
is defective in this respect, that man is their superior
in intelligence, though not in strength. But in the
present case the victim is in every way inferior to his
Pursuer. So God appears as the Huntsman, and the
unhappy sufferer as the poor hunted game. The bow
is bent, and the arrow directed straight for its mark."
Nay, arrow after arrow has already been let fly, and
the dreadful Huntsman, too skilful ever to miss His
mark, has been shooting " the sons of His quiver
into the very vitals of the object of His pursuit.^
' Hi. 7.
* i.ii. 9.
^ ••