AGE, OLD (a), old). The strong desire of a pro tracted life, and the marked respect %%all which aged persons were treated among the Jews, are very often indicated in the Scriptures. The most striking instance which Job can give of the re spect in which he was once held, is that even old men stood up as he passed them in the streets (Job xxix :8), the force of which is illustrated by the injunction in the law, 'Before the hoary head thou shalt stand up, and shalt reverence the aged' (Lev. xix :32). Similar injunctions are re peated in the Apocrypha, so as to show the deportment expected from young men towards their seniors in company. Thus, in describing a feast, the author of Ecclesiasticus (xxxii:3, 7) says, 'Speak thou that art the elder, for it be cometh thee. Speak, young man, if there be need of thee, and yet scarcely, when thou art twice asked.' The attainment of old age is constantly prom ised or described as a blessing (Gen. xv :ts ; Job
v :26), and communities are represented as highly favored in which old people abound (Is. lxv :2o; Zech. viii :4, 9), while premature death is de nounced as the greatest of calamities to indi viduals, and to the families to which they belong (1 Sam. ii:32) the aged are constantly supposed to excel in understanding and judgment (Job Xii :20 ; XV :TO; XXXii :9; t Kings xii :6, 8), and the mercilessness of the Chaldeans is expressed by their having `no compassion' upon the 'old man, or him who stooped for age' (2 Chron. xxxvi :17).
The strong desire to attain old age was neces sarily in some degree connected with or resembled the respect paid to aged persons: for people would scarcely desire to be old, were the aged neglected or regarded with mere sufferance.