Content
The book of job belongs to the genre of Wisdom literature and appears in the Writings division of the Hebrew Scriptures. Job's singular structure - a dialogue featuring job, three friends, Elihu, and, in the end, God - and its distinctive theme - the suffering of the righteous - distinguish the book as unique. With the exception of a prose introduction (chs. 1-2) and epilogue (ch. 42), almost all of job is poetic.
Content
The story of job centers on a very righteous and, at the outset, very wealthy Edomite sheikh, who suddenly and for no clear reason suffers successive disasters that devastate his estate, his family, and his health. Job remains completely unaware that God has allowed an "adversary" to test through affliction the sincerity of his faithfulness to God. The afflicter wagers that, when Job's life turns sour, job will curse his Maker.
But the sufferer disappoints his attacker. Initially, Job reacts with calm resignation to the loss of his family and fortune. Those who tout the "patience of job," however, have only scratched the surface of his response, for after God allows the "adversary" to afflict Job's own body job begins a vehement protest that charges God with a gross miscarriage of justice. Throughout most of the book, Job serves more as a model of protest than of patience.
Job's friends do not offer much help in his struggle with the timeless question of why the righteous suffer. The first three speakers even reject the premise that job stands blameless. Substituting analysis for comfort, they try to make Job's particular case conform to their theology, which mandates the interpretation of suffering as punishment for sin. Then the brash young Elihu interprets affliction as a divine tool to prevent future sinning; by afflicting the innocent Job, God is doing him a favor.
Throughout the dialogue, job defends his innocence, and he must deflect the "friends"' off-target sermons in his solitary struggle to make sense of his suffering. He lacks any hope that his misfortune will be set right after he dies. But to Job's credit, he allows his resultant despair, anger, frustration, and defiance to subject his theology to intense growing pains while the friends remain safely, though temporarily, barricaded in their theologically rigid box.
Job and his friends continue talking past one another until God breaks in and silences them all. He does not offer job an explanation for his suffering, but the personal encounter expands Job's perception of God, puts his suffering in perspective, and results in Job's ceasing to struggle.
The book of job does not teach that suffering never results from sinfulness, only that suffering does not always represent punishment for disobedience to God. So how should the innocent person react to suffering? God's ultimate approval of job both in his patience and in his protest sanctions both responses, so long as the sufferer also follows Job's example of clinging to God in the midst of repentance and complaint.
Authorship and Date
Beyond the almost certain conclusion that an Israelite wrote the book of job, guesses as to its author remain purely speculative. The mention of job in Ezek. 14:14, ao assumes him to be a well-known and greatly admired person whose life story probably became widely known through centuries of oral retelling. Most scholars believe that the present text represents the work of ancient editors throughout various stages of the book's written transmission.
Though Job contains allusions to other parts of the Old Testament (e.g., Genesis 1 and Psalm 8), the book lacks any reference to events or institutions that would provide clues as to the date of the account's composition. The general picture of life and customs in job seems to fit the patriarchal period; however, the story's historical setting does not necessarily indicate its time of authorship, just as its geographical setting (Edom) does not suggest its composition by anyone other than an Israelite. Modern scholars posit the bool's commission to writing sometime in the ist millennium B.C.
Large encampment reminiscent of Job, the "greatest of all the people of the east," rich in flocks and progeny. (Phoenix Data Systems, Neal and Joel Bierling)
1-2 Tragedy Befalls a Righteous Man
This prose prologue confronts the reader with the age-old question, Why do the righteous suffer? The fact of their suffering flies in the face of a theology put forward throughout the Old Testament historical books and prophetic literature - the promise of blessing to the covenantally obedient and punishment to transgressors of divine law (e.g., Deuteronomy 28; 1 Chr. 28:8-9).
By ancient standards a wealthy man also blessed with ideal numbers of sons and daughters (seven and three; cf. Ruth 4:15), job evidences all the expected rewards for leading a righteous life. In his homeland east of Palestine (Uz likely represents Edom; cf. Lam. 4:21), he even offers sacrifices for unknown sins that his children might have committed, just in case.
But a conversation between God and "the adversary" (also translated "the satan," but not meaning Satan himself) in the presence of the heavenly beings in God's court soon leads to the reversal of the unsuspecting job's worldly fortunes and puts to the ultimate test his loyalty to God. In reality, the adversary's charge that job's faithfulness hinges on his leading "the good life" represents a challenge not to job but to God, and God allows the adversary to play out the contest on the human scene in a way that strikes the reader as arbitrary, unfair, and extreme.
In the space of one day, job loses almost everything. Thanks both to supernaturally orchestrated natural disasters and to nomadic raiders from southwestern Arabia (Sabeans) and southern Mesopotamia (Chaldeans), Job's assets dry up, his workforce is trimmed to the bone, and the heirs to his former fortune precede him in death. Though impoverished and grieving, Job maintains an unshakably righteous posture toward God and without question accepts God's supreme right to curse him as well as to bless him. Note that job rightly assumes God's ultimate responsibility for the calamities he has suffered (1:12; 2:3), but he does not presume to judge God by blaming him (1:21-22). Because of Job's faithfulness, the adversary has lost the first battle, but he will not surrender the war.
In a second heavenly court encounter, God grants the adversary added permission to afflict Job's own body, short of killing him, as a further test of the man's religious mettle. Covered head to foot with boils, job separates himself from polite society by taking up residence on the local rubbish heap, replete with ashes associated in the ancient Near Eastern world with mourn ing. Job's wife, understandably bitter about the loss of her children and thus her social status (cf. Gen. 16; 29:31-30:24), challenges her husband to blaspheme by cursing God and thereby to hasten his own death.
Disease, Disabilities, and Healing
Health care refers to a system of institutions, personnel, and practices meant to maintain and/or restore health. Hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic period probably already knew of the medicinal value of some plants and were probably engaging in simple healing activities. Survivable surgical procedures on the skull (trephination) began as early as the Neolithic period in ancient Syria-Palestine.
Public hygiene is part of any health care system, and sewage systems in some towns (e.g., Jericho and Tell Beit Mirsim in some periods) and private toilets in some dwellings (e.g., Jerusalem in the 7th-6th centuries B.c.) attest to the concern with public hygiene. The priestly tasks described in Leviticus 13-14 may also be seen as an effort in public hygiene. Despite several references to washing and related activities (Gen. 18:4; Ps. 60:8), it is likely that personal hygiene was generally poor in the absence of abundant water supplies. Ruth 3:3 indicates that even simple bathing was sometimes seen as a special or uncommon event.
The precise identification of most diseases in the Bible has been notoriously difficult, especially in cases of epidemics (Numbers 25; 1 Sam. 5:6-12). Researchers have established the probable existence of certain intestinal diseases (e.g., tapeworm and whipworm infections) in ancient Israel. The condition usually translated "leprosy" (Heb. tsara`at) receives the most
attention (Leviticus 13-14), but it probably encompassed a large variety of diseases, especially those manifesting chronic discoloration of the skin.
The Hebrew Bible has at least two principal explanations for illness. One (Deuteronomy 28) affirms that health (Heb. shalom) encompasses a physical state associated with the fulfillment of covenantal stipulations that are fully disclosed to the members of the society, and illness stems from the violation of those stipulations. Therapy includes reviewing one's actions in the light of the covenant. The book of Job offers a contrasting, yet complementary, view: illness may be rooted in divine plans that may not be disclosed to the patient at all, and not in the transgression of published rules. The patient must trust that God's undisclosed reasons are just.
Disability, in modern terms, usually refers to a chronic condition that prevents a person from performing a role assigned by society. Accordingly, what a society deemed to be a disability may vary widely. In ancient Israel, infertility was viewed as an illness that diminished the social status of the afflicted woman (Gen. 30:1-20). Blindness (2 Sam. 5:8) and certain musculo-skeletal disorders would qualify as disabilities as well (9:3). An ill king, such as Uzziah (2 Chr. 26:20-21), could also be seen as unable to carry out his normal role.
Illness and healing rest ultimately upon God's control (Job
5:18). Since it was accessible and inexpensive, prayer was probably the most common option for medical consultation, and both petitions and thanksgiving prayers uttered from the viewpoint of the patient are attested (Isa. 38:10-20).
Illegitimate options included consultants designated as "physicians" (Heb. rop'im; 2 Chr. 16:12), pagan deities (2 Kgs. 1:2-4), and a large variety of "sorcerers" (Deut. 18:10-12). Warnings in the canonical texts, along with archaeological evidence for fertility cults, indicate that "illegitimate" options were used widely in ancient Israel.
Stories of healing miracles (e.g., 2 Kings 4, 8) may reflect an effort to promote the prophet as a legitimate consultant, and he was often in fierce competition with "illegitimate" options. His function was to judge the prospects of recovery (2 Kgs. 8:8) and intercede with God on behalf of the patient (5:11). Unlike some of the principal healers in other ancient Near Eastern societies, the effectiveness of the Israelite prophet resided more in his relationship with his god than in his technical expertise. The demise of the prophetic office in the early Second Temple period probably led to the widespread legitimization of the "physician" (cf. Sirach 38).
It is particularly difficult to identify and evaluate the therapeutic value of most specific treatments attributed to any of these consultants. Such treatments include the use of "balsam" from Gilead (Jer. 46:11), "mandrakes" for infertility (Gen. 30:14), and "bandages" (Ezek. 30:21).
Another accepted option for dealing with some illnesses, particularly in the preexilic period, was the temple. In 1 Samuel 1 Hannah visited the temple at Shiloh to help reverse her infertility. 2 Kings 18:4 indicates that prior to Hezekiah the metallic serpent made by Moses (Num. 21:6-9) was involved in acceptable therapeutic rituals in the Jerusalem temple. Metallic serpents have been found in temples used for therapy during the 1st millennium B.C. (e.g., the Asclepieion at Pergamon).
By the postexilic period the Priestly Code severely restricted access to the temple for the chronically ill (e.g., "lepers," Leviticus 13-14; cf. 2 Sam. 5:8 on the blind and lame) because of fear of "impurity." The theology of impurity, as a system of social boundaries, could serve to remove socioeconomically burdensome populations from society, the chronically ill perhaps being the most prominent. In effect, the Priestly Code minimizes state responsibility for the chronically ill, leaving the eradication of illness for the future (Ezek. 47:12; cf. Isa. 35:5-6).
Thanksgiving or "well-being" offerings (Lev. 7:11-36) after an illness were probably always acceptable and economically advantageous for the temple. Offerings after an illness also may have served as public notice of the readmission of previously ostracized patients to society (Lev. 14:1-32).
The community responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls added to the
list of illnesses excluded from the normal community and expanded the restrictions for "leprosy," the blind, and the lame (1QSa 2:4-9). Socioeconomic reasons, as well as the fear of magical contamination, may be responsible for such increased restrictions.
During the 1st century A.D. a variety of health care systems were available in Palestine. These included those associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Greek god Asclepius. In addition, there were secular GrecoRoman traditions associated with Hippocrates, Celsus, and other physicians.
Perhaps the most far-reaching consequence of the Priestly Code was the growth of chronically ill populations who were permitted little access to the temple. Much of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples appears to target these populations (Matt.lo:8; Mark 14:3), and an important focus of early Christianity may be seen as a critique of the Levitical health care system. Jesus demonstrated that travel to a shrine was not necessary for healing (Matt. 8:8), and he instructed his disciples to take no fees such as were charged in many Greco-Roman traditions (1o:8). Likewise, he resisted legalistic restrictions on when healing could take place (Mark 3:2-5).
In the early Christian period illness was thought to be caused by numerous demonic entities, not always acting at Yahweh's command (Matt. 15:22; Luke 11:14), and not necessarily by the violation of covenantal stipulations (John 9:2). Illnesses mentioned include fevers (Mark 1:30), hemorrhages (Matt.
9:20), and what has been identified by some scholars as epilepsy (Mark 9:14-29). Emphasizing that the cure for illness may be found in this world, early Christianity preserved many older Hebrew traditions regarding miraculous healings (Acts 5:16; 9:34) and collective health (Jas. 5:16), though the influence of Hellenistic healing cults (e.g., the Asclepius cult) also may be seen.
In all biblical periods the family was probably the main caretaker of the ill (2 Sam. 13:5-6; Matt. 8:14). The best medical technology (e.g., scalpels, forceps, dental drills, and splints) may have helped only simple problems (e.g., extraction of lodged weapons). In general, trauma (from accidents or strife), malnutrition, and disease limited life expectancy to under 40 years throughout the biblical era.
For Further Reading
Twelftree, Graham H. Jesus the Exorcist. WUNT 54. Tubingen: Mohr, 1993.
HECTOR AVALOS
Dismissing his wife's advice as unthinking foolishness, job firmly maintains that God may do what he pleases. Job's commendable failure to "sin with his lips" proves wrong the adversary's claim that job would curse God if physically afflicted. The phrase does not imply that he might have sinned in thought or deed.
When three of job's friends hear about the personal disasters that have befallen their comrade, they travel to job's home from areas in Arabia and Edom. The calamities have so transformed job that they barely recognize him. They first mourn for him and then grieve with him for a full week. Their silence recognizes that words are inadequate to comfort their friend.
Despite Job's exemplary attitude, the sympathetic reader cannot help but ponder why God has allowed the assault on the blameless pawn in this spiritual power play. Ultimately, the book will teach that God alone is the source of wisdom and answers to no one.
3 Job Curses His Birth
Emotional frailty finally gets the best of job, and he breaks the weeklong silence by cursing the day of his birth in terms that invoke the reversal of creation through a return to darkness and the absence of God (vv. 4-9; cf. Jer. 20:14-18). Job futilely enlists the cursing arts of magicians to make unlucky the day of his conception and thereby to prevent his parents from conceiving him. His current misery makes him forget about the blessed life he previously led so that he even wishes he had died at birth. In the book's first poetic speech, job wonders why God withholds death from the sufferer and discloses that his worst fears have all come true.
4-5 Eliphaz Responds
Job's friend Eliphaz feels compelled to respond to Job's lament. He points out that job has comforted many others through hard times, but he gently chastises job for impatience now that personal disaster has struck him. Speaking from the perspective of a theology of reward or punishment, Eliphaz concludes that suffering results from disobedience to God (4:7-9). Punishment even affects the offender's offspring, who cannot escape it at the city gate, where the ancients administered justice (5:4).
Eliphaz recounts a night vision, which reveals to him that not even the angels stand innocent before God. How much more impossible it is for humans, who bring trouble on themselves (5:7). Eliphaz admonishes job to present his cause to God, who in supreme justice rewards good and punishes evil. Eliphaz sincerely believes that God is rightly disciplining job for inevitable sin, yet he also reassures his friend that he is not among those whom God destroys for the concerted pursuit of wickedness. As a basically pious but imperfect man, Job should rejoice in his punishment and take comfort in the confidence that God will deliver him and make him secure once again. In this view, according to Eliphaz, lies the remedy for Job's impatience.
6-7 Job Protests
Job does not for a minute buy Eliphaz's argument. He maintains that his suffering far outweighs his sinfulness. He cannot understand why God suddenly treats him as an enemy. In the midst of his complaint that God has attacked him with poison arrows (6:4), job wishes God would deal him the final blow (vv. 8-9). His only consolation is that he has not turned his back on God.
Job now focuses on his friends, who have failed him. He counted on their sympathetic support to keep him on the right spiritual path, but instead they have disappointed him much as a dried up riverbed (wadi) disappoints caravan traders emerging from the and desert in search of life-sustaining water. Job's depression turns to anger. He accuses his friends of distancing themselves from him for fear that disaster will strike them too, and he challenges them to reveal the sin they claim he has committed.
Job determines to continue his complaint, unconvinced by Eliphaz's attempt to get him to recognize his guilt. In a parody of Psalm 8, which rejoices at the wonder of God's interest in humans, job appears bitter that God watches him so closely (7:17-18). He protests that he cannot possibly represent the sort of threat posed by the legendary symbols of chaos, Sea and Dragon (cf. 3:8), and wishes God would leave him alone. Job complains that he cannot even find peace in sleep, for then dreams and visions torment him. "What have I done to deserve this?" Job asks God. "If sin is the problem, why don't you just grant me a pardon?"
8 Bildad's Admonition
So convinced of the relationship between sin and suffering on the one hand and righteousness and blessing on the other, the second friend, Bildad, chastises job for questioning God's justice. He asserts that job's sons must have sinned, and therefore God has punished them with death. Bildad remains convinced that if job himself has lived a truly pure life, God will restore his fortunes. The obvious question for Bildad would be, Why did God punish a truly righteous person in the first place? Nevertheless, Bildad tells job not to take his word for it, but instead to inquire into the theological discoveries of past generations. Above all, Bildad admonishes job not to give up his confidence in God, for only the godless ultimately perish.
9-10 Job's Fatalism
In responding to Bildad, Job affirms God's ultimate justice (cf. 8:20). But Job also recognizes God's mysteriousness and therefore the futility of trying to prove his innocence to God. Job could never win a dispute against God; moreover, no one can thwart God's incomprehensible purposes. In this fatalistic approach to his plight, job pictures God as exercising power over the universe in a way that cancels out the very order he has created.
Convinced of his own innocence, job concludes that God does not regard righteousness as a reason for withholding judgment. Job has done all that he can do. God has declared him guilty and deserving of punishment anyway. He
would never get a fair trial against God, so why try any longer?
Yet Job cannot help but imagine the questions he would put to God in court. Why have you oppressed me, a man you know to be righteous and one whom you yourself have shaped? What charges do you bring against me? Why have I become such a prime target of your anger? Why did you bring me into the world? Finally, Job sinks into the depths of despair and wishes God would leave him alone, so that in dying he could return in peace to the darkness and gloom of primordial chaos.
11 Zophar's Accusatory Sermon
Zophar's frustration with job's refusal to admit guilt has intensified by the time this third friend speaks, and he shows no sympathy for job. In essence, Zophar asserts that job should adopt a prayerful attitude, acknowledge his guilt, and turn away from his sin - in other words, repent - and then for job life would be great again. Zophar ends with a warning that insinuates Job's guilt: death constitutes the only hope for the wicked, who will find no escape from God's judgment.
12-14 Job Lashes Out at His Friends
Job resents his friends for treating him as though his intelligence were inferior to their own. He sarcastically asserts that they possess a corner on wisdom (12:2). Then he contrasts their simplistic understanding with God's inscrutable wisdom, displayed in his upheaval of the stable order of nature for a purpose that only God understands. This reversal of theological order constitutes the circumstances in which job now finds himself.
Job bitterly dismisses his friends as "worthless physicians" who would do better to listen in silence than multiply shallow words of explanation and advice. In trying to justify to Job God's actions against him, they have acted as false witnesses for God. Job knows the situation is not so simple, that a correct theology must make room for the suffering of a truly righteous person.
Job remains so convinced of his innocence that he turns from wishing that God would leave him alone (10:20-22) to initiating a dispute with God (contrast 9:3ff.). The undeserving sufferer resolves to pursue the clearing of his name despite God's seeming determination to slay him (13:15-18; contrast 2:6). Job finds it hard to believe that God would punish him so severely for the sins of his youth, and he cannot understand why he has suddenly become an enemy in God's eyes.
In chapter 14, job philosophically reflects on humanity at large from the perspective of the turns his own life has taken. Surely insignificant, short-lived humans are not worth the intense pursuit to which God is subjecting job. Verses 7-12 provide a rare glimpse into Old Testament views of the afterlife. Job contrasts humans, who die and stay dead (as far as job knows), with felled trees, whose stumps revive and flourish with just a little water. Though Job appears not to believe in resurrection, he certainly seems to wish for it, for he wants Sheol (the Underworld, home to the dead) to serve as a hiding place from which he can return after God's anger fades away (cf. 7:9). Nevertheless, Job remains without hope for this eventuality, and he ends his speech feeling completely alone in his pain and grief.
15 Eliphaz Holds the Hard Line
Eliphaz scolds job for his lack of verbal restraint. He considers job's impassioned rhetoric as inane, irreverent, and obviously indicating guilt, without considering that job might be speaking the truth. Then Eliphaz throws job's sarcasm back on him by accusing job of believing that he holds the corner on wisdom (v. 8; cf. 12:1). Failing to grasp that suffering teaches lessons otherwise incomprehensible, the insensitive friend wonders what job knows that his friends do not.
To reassert Job's guilt, Eliphaz returns to the theme of humankind's inherent bent toward sinfulness (vv. 14-16; cf. 4:17-19). Then he details their miserable lives. Perhaps in the belief that Job needs spiritual disciplining rather than consolation, Eliphaz makes no mention of the hope for restoration that the righteous can expect.
16-17 Job Loses Hope of Being Cleared
Thoroughly disgusted with his "sorry comforters," Job gives up trying to convince them of his innocence. In this speech, he alternately addresses his friends and God, but sometimes no one in particular.
Job tells his friends that in their analysis of his situation they have taken the easy way out. Reverse the roles, and job could just as simply sit in judgment over them. His protestations neither help nor hurt him. God has already mercilessly attacked him, and now his friends have teamed up against him, too. The metaphors job uses to illustrate his point conjure up images of hand-to-hand combat and vicious attack by wild animals. Job affirms his innocence and his nonviolent posture, but he feels completely worn out.
In a cry that recalls Cain's murder of Abel, Job petitions the earth not to cover up the injustices done to him after his own death (16:18; cf. Gen. 4:10). The insinuation is that God is murdering him. Death maintains a psychological grip on job, and he does not expect to live to see his innocence vindicated.
Job finds no one who will stand with him (17:10). That his innocence will die and descend with him to Sheol plunges him into further despair. Death offers no hope whatsoever.
18 Bildad Takes Offense
In a second attempt to break Job's unyielding insistence on his innocence, Bildad tells him to be reasonable. He takes offense at Job's rejection of the friends' counsel, and scornfully wonders why job thinks that everyone else should change his theology to fit this supposedly unique experience.
Bildad's picture of the devastating life's end of the wicked includes several tactless parallels to the calamities that have befallen job (vv 13, 15, 19, 20). Though Bildad stops short of identifying job himself as one of these deliberately wicked individuals, he implies that job may suffer this end if he refuses to mend his unrepentant ways.
19 Job's Innocence versus God's Guilt
Job answers Bildad's question, "How long will you hunt for words?" (18:2), with one of his own: "How long will you torment me [with your own words]?" Job protests the friends' concerted effort to prove the justice of his disgrace by pointing out that even if he has sinned, he has not done so against them. Job's insistence that God is the one who has wronged him cuts short any attempt by the friends to claim an admission of guilt N. 4).
Job then uses multiple metaphors to outline the ways that God has acted unjustly toward him: mugged townsman, traveler, deposed king, military enemy. In addition, God has stripped Job of support by his family, friends, servants, and associates and has made him offensive and abhorrent to them. God has made him a social outcast, for Job's community now view him as the sinner they never guessed he was.
Job wishes for a permanent written record of his defense, since he does not believe he will live to see his vindication. Once again, job expresses the conviction that his avenger (often misleadingly translated "Redeemer") will ultimately clear his name (cf. 16:19). This avenger almost certainly does not refer to God, the opponent whom job hopes to confront face to face in court (vv 26-27).
Job ends his answer to Bildad with a warning to his three friends: beware of treating me unfairly, because your judgment will come too, and in the end you will pay for persecuting me with your accusations.
20 Zophar Warns Job to Repent
Insulted by Job's reproof, Zophar cannot resist responding. Using dramatic imagery, he echoes Bildad's belief about the fate of the wicked. Zophar notes that any good fortune - even exceptional achievement (v. 6) - enjoyed by the wicked will never last. Their accomplishments become their own undoing. The wicked cannot escape the sword of punishment. The heavens and the earth (often invoked as witnesses in ancient Near Eastern treaties; see Deut. 31:28) condemn them. Job must repent to avoid ultimate destruction as one of the wicked.
In the Hebrew text, Zophar's second speech is his last, while both Eliphaz and Bildad go on to deliver third sermons. Some scholars suggest that 27:13-23, which sounds more like the friends than job, might actually represent a third speech of Zophar.
21 Job Contradicts Zophar
No longer content merely to deny his company's theological view of his suffering, now Job determines to "tell it like it is." He warns the friends that what he will say about the way God deals with the wicked and the righteous will shock them - he can hardly believe it himself. Job wants his friends truly to understand the perspective behind his thinking, for so far they have only heard his words.
Contradicting Zophar and Bildad, Job asserts that the wicked do indeed prosper. They lead long and charmed lives while displaying utter contempt for God. In contrast to his own agonizing and drawn-out road to death, the wicked die quickly and peacefully. They certainly do not reap what they sow, but this observation does not mean that job wishes to follow in their footsteps (v. i6).
Job anticipates the friends' argument that God punishes future generations for the "sins of their fathers." But Job protests that Mosaic law prohibits fathers and sons from assuming punishment for the other's sin of murder (cf. Deut. 24:16). Job calls for the wicked to face their own music, but he observes that they do not. Instead, they die unpunished and are honored at their funerals. The friends' lying contradictions of the truth job knows as fact offer him no comfort.
22 Eliphaz Invents Job's Sins
Until now the least caustic of the friends, Eliphaz here invents sins for job to justify the conviction that God cannot be punishing job for his piety. The unjustified oppression of others, including the poor and socially powerless, heads Eliphaz's list and echoes Zophar's description of the acts of the wicked (see 20:19; cf. Deut. 15:7-11). Sins of neglect appear in verses 7 and 9.
Eliphaz picks up on Zophar's accusation that Job has committed "secret sins" (cf. 11:4-12) and charges job with fooling himself into believing that he can get away with his wicked ways because his distant God cannot see them. If job will only give up the charade, accept God's correction of him, and pursue a righteous life, he will find his fortunes restored. Job must make his treasure God rather than material wealth.
23-24 Job Holds His Head High
Because of Job's innocence, he can take a higher road than to waste his time defending himself against the specific sins of which Eliphaz falsely accuses him. Convinced that the righteous people present would support him and that God himself stands fully aware of his innocence, Job's thoughts return to his wish for a trial against his divine judge. But Job cannot find God, whom he has indeed made his treasure (23:12). Job despairs that despite his innocence, God will continue to treat him in what seems a completely arbitrary, unjust, and senseless way. Yet the innocent sufferer remains determined to speak in his own defense.
Job wanders outside his own misery to wonder why God does not hold regular court dates to judge the wicked. He acknowledges that the wicked do commit the social wrongs of which Eliphaz has accused him: oppression of the poor and needy; seizure of others' land by removing landmarks; and exacting pledges as securities against debt. Yet God ignores the cries of the wounded. He callously allows injustices to be committed.
Undoubtedly, Job includes himself among those who have spent time with the wicked but who have not followed in their footsteps. He concedes Eliphaz's point that the wicked believe they can hide their sins, but he denies that he stands among them. Job 24:18-21 sounds more like the friends' words than Job's, and some scholars posit that these verses originally belonged at the end of Bildad's third speech, recorded in the following chapter. Yet verses 22-25 seem to record a typical complaint by job that God allows the valiant only a brief period of exaltation before dragging them off to ruin. Job ends by daring his friends to prove him wrong.
25 Bildad's Farewell
Bildad says scarcely anything new in his final speech. Here he acknowledges God's dominion and then echoes Eliphaz's point about the sinful nature of humans (v. 4; cf. 4:17). As the text stands, the three friends have run out of arguments, while job has a lot left to say. But some scholars suggest problems in the historical transmission of the current text: some of the material credited to job in the next six chapters sounds more like the friends; Bildad's third speech is so short; the text designates no third speech to Zophar (see 27:13-23); and job appears to speak uninterruptedly for the next six chapters.
26-27 Job Shows the Courage of His Conviction
Job's sarcastic outburst in 26:1-4 may represent an interruption to Bildad's speech (ch. 25) and verses 5-14 that speech's conclusion. In describing the might and power God demonstrates in the universe, verse 6 refers to Abaddon, the "place of destruction" and counterpart to Sheol. In verse 14 the speaker notes the limited exposure to God's power that humans experience, and wonders at the impossibility of understanding the fullness of that power.
Chapter 27 opens with Job's most forceful declaration of his innocence and a refusal to perjure himself by embracing the friends' analysis of the reason for his suffering. Job's impeccably clear conscience affords him this privilege.
Because 27:13-23 contradict Job's previous position concerning the wicked, some scholars suggest that this speech may represent a third by Zophar - one that chapter 28 completes. They point out that Zophar's first speech (ch. 11) incorporates themes carried forward by 27:13-28:28: the fate of the wicked (27:13-23), God's hidden wisdom (28:1-27), and the folly of evil (28:28).
28 Human versus Divine Wisdom
Whether from the lips of job or Zophar, or from the pen of a later editor, this "Hymn to Wisdom" demonstrates the difference between human know-how and divine understanding. The ancients thought of wisdom as a skill, and here human ingenuity in the technological enterprise of mining exemplifies the practical wisdom of humans, which sets them apart from the birds and the beasts. But the value of divine wisdom far exceeds that of the gains of human wisdom, here represented by the precious gems and metals recovered in mining. Inaccessible to humans and to what the ancients viewed as worldly powers - the sea (v. 14), Abaddon, and death (v. 22) - divine wisdom denotes God's unique understanding of how the universe operates. After all, God established wisdom and used it in creating the world (vv 25-27).
As creatures made in God's image, humans must pursue divine wisdom by pursuing the only wise God. They do this by revering him through the shunning of evil - by leading a righteous life. Looking back to the opening chapters of the book, this practical approach to wisdom describes job to a tee (1:1, 8; 2:3).
29-31 Job Summarizes His Case
Job thinks back to the "good old days" when God's watchful eye brought him blessing, not oppression (29:1-4; cf. 7:17-20). He waxes nostalgic over the days when his children surrounded him, life was easy, and he knew abundance (29:5-6). In those bygone times, men of all ages and stations in life respected him for his protection of society's weak and powerless and for his punishment of the wicked (contrast Eliphaz's accusations in 22:5-9). When Job spoke, everybody listened (29:21-25). Job assumed he would die at an advanced age in the peace and security that attended his righteous life (29:18).
But now God has completely turned the tables on Job. Even social outcasts disdain him, mock him, and profit from his downfall (30:115). God not only ignores Job's cries for help but also cruelly persecutes him. Job wonders what he has done to deserve such treatment (30:25-26). He helped others in need, and so he assumed he could expect the same treatment in return. But Job is not reaping what he sowed. No one comforts him. The sweet music of Job's life has transformed into the discord of grief (30:31).
Job's genuine surprise over the unexpected disaster that has befallen him and his belief that the inheritance of the unjust is calamity (31:23) show that he subscribed to the retributive theology still advocated by his three friends. But personal experience has called his old thinking into question. He cannot believe that God does not recognize his innocence, and so he invites God to "weigh" his iniquity and remains convinced that the scales will bear witness to his integrity (31:6).
In protesting his innocence, job touches on several areas that parallel prohibitions contained in the Ten Commandments: lying (31:5), adultery and covetousness (v. 9), idolatry (= nature worship, vv. 26-27), stealing (vv. 38-39).
Job adds to his defense that he has dealt fairly with the lesser members of his household - slaves whom he could have treated as mere possessions (31:13). He has acted generously toward the weak, the powerless, and the needy even when fellow community elders deciding cases at the city gate would have supported him against these disenfranchised elements of society.
Neither has job found his security in material wealth rather than in God (31:24-25). Nor has he taken pleasure in the misfortune of his enemies. Job insists that he has not sinned and then tried to hide his iniquity, as Adam did (31:33; cf. the friends' accusations in 11:4-12), and he is prepared to sign a sworn statement professing his innocence. Job's closing addendum asserts his honest acquisition of his land, which represents the basis of his livelihood (31:38-40; contrast 24:2), and then he rests his case.
32-37 Elihu Speaks Up
A younger and until now silent fourth speaker, Elihu, suddenly and energetically interjects a long tirade lambasting both job and his friends. Because of Elihu's unannounced entrance into the text and his absence from the epilogue, which mentions the three friends, most scholars believe that the Elihu material represents a later addition to the book.
In Elihu's attempt to succeed where job and his friends have failed - in finding a satisfactory explanation for Job's suffering - the impassioned companion sometimes puts words into Job's mouth or skews what job has said earlier. Elihu's burning anger stems from two roots: his notion that job considers himself more just than God, and his observation that the older friends have failed to defend God successfully against job's specific complaints. Asserting that everyone has an equal capacity for wisdom, Elihu claims he will best his elders in imparting understanding on the subject of job's affliction (ch. 32).
Job rebuked by his friends; William Blake. (The Pierpont Morgan Library /Art Resource, NY)
Claiming divine inspiration (33:4), the straight-talking Elihu first turns to job, whose perspective he condemns (33:8-12). He wonders why job thinks God owes him any justification for his actions (33:13). Elihu claims that as God afflicts people in dreams to turn them away from sin, so does he afflict people through physical suffering to stem the tide of transgression. Job's suffering does not represent punishment for sins job has committed; rather, it constitutes discipline to prevent job from sinning in the first place. In other words, God has afflicted job for his benefit. In this way, Elihu seeks to preserve both Job's innocence and God's justice.
Next Elihu endeavors to instruct the friends in the correct response to job's complaints. Job's accusation that God has taken away his right constitutes a false charge and therefore puts job in the company of the wicked. Elihu vigorously defends God's righteous integrity and denies that God ever perverts justice (34:10-15). He affirms that God repays people according to their deeds and chastises job for his rebellious presumption that God should reward him on his own terms (34:33).
In chapter 35, Elihu charges job with sulky navel-gazing. Job's complaint that his righteous conduct has done him no good demonstrates his failure to see the big picture. Elihu urges job to address his complaint to God rather than whining in the wind. Job should abandon his death wish and focus on the lesson God is trying to teach him (36:20-23). Job should concentrate his energies on exalting God (36:24ff.).
Elihu ends his speech by stressing God's might and power over nature (particularly the elements) so as to emphasize God's inaccessibility and the insignificance to God of human wisdom (ch. 37). Job cannot expect an answer from such an exalted deity. Yet in the very next chapter God speaks through nature directly to his suffering servant.
38-41 God Answers without Explaining
Through a whirlwind, God delivers the final word that silences job and his friends. God sarcastically challenges job to teach him, since Job makes himself out to be so wise. Toward that end, God puts to job a series of rhetorical questions that heighten Job's awareness of his limitations compared with the infinite nature and power of God, who exists and operates in a sphere that exceeds human understanding (chs. 38-39).
Where were you at creation, Job? Have you ever made the sun rise? Have you descended to the depths of the ocean? Do you understand just how expansive the world really is? Where do light and darkness come from? Can you direct the course of the constellations? Can you control the weather?
These questions, which highlight the complexity of the natural order and prompt Job to consider the parallel complexity of the moral order, humble job enough to render him speechless. But God has not finished yet. He chastises job for condemning divine actions to) ustify himself. If job is so right and God so wrong, let job do God's job. Let Job bear himself like a king, humble the proud, and trample and bind the wicked - then God will acknowledge Job's independent power to vindicate himself (40:10-14).
Then let him go on to deal with mighty mythical figures of chaos and evil (40:15-41:34). God's obvious implication consists in job's inability to direct or control such forces. But God created everything and therefore controls and owns everything. Because no one can give to God anything that does not already belong to him, God owes to no one - including job - anything. Not even an explanation.
42:1-6 Job's Retraction
Job responds to God's correction with appropriate humility. He acknowledges that he has issued his complaints without understanding the depths of God's purposes. Without asking for an explanation, job "takes it all back;' and he sincerely repents - not of some sin that has brought on God's punishment, but instead of his ignorant challenging of God's justice toward him. Seeing God, the prospect of which normally instilled fear for one's life (cf. Exod. 33:20), has not emboldened job to argue his case, as he previously intended. Rather, the visual encounter with the awesome deity has helped job to view his circumstances in the proper perspective (v. 5; cf. 19:26-27). He becomes content simply to recognize God's unfathomable greatness and to accept the vicissitudes of his life, whether or not he can make sense of them.
42:7-17 God Reprimands the Friends and Restores Job
God expresses to Eliphaz, the first of Job's visitors, displeasure with the three friends' misrepresentation of God, which stemmed from a rigid theological framework that set limits on divine nature and actions. Though God has just scolded job for challenging his justice, here he affirms job's honest search for truth (vv. 7-8). The previously proud but errant trio must humble themselves before job, whose forgiveness and prayer on their behalf will effect God's forgiveness of them.
Despite affliction, job has remained true to his inner nature. According to his lifelong practice of graciousness, he serves as champion for his friends, who have acted more as enemies. After Job accepts his suffering and forgives his friends, God clears him in the eyes of society by doubling his previous fortunes (v 12; cf. 1:3). He provides job with belated consolation and comfort from his siblings (contrast 19:13-19), who give him gifts betokening their renewed esteem. And God blesses job with a second set of the perfect number of children (cf. 1:2). The adversary, whom God allowed to test job through afflicting him, receives not so much as a passing mention. The dramatic demonstration of God's ultimate control over job's fortunes takes center stage over against the foregone conclusion of the afflicter's defeat.
Evidently, Job now possesses so much wealth that his notoriously beautiful daughters receive shares in his estate along with their brothers. Job's long life - also a sign of divine blessing - affords him plenty of time to delight in four generations of his descendants before he dies. But one might ask, "Doesn't God's restoration of job's fortunes validate his three friends' theological system of rewards for righteousness and punishment for wickedness?" No, for the fact that job suffered at all bursts this flimsy theological bubble.
The Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind; William Blake. (The Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, NY)
Though in this account Job's suffering eventually ends in restoration, even exaltation,
many "saints" throughout the centuries have not realized in this world the reward for their faithfulness. On the contrary, they have died in isolation, agony, and disgrace. Job learned the hard way about the mysteriousness of God's purposes, and he eventually accepted his lot without giving a thought to the possibility that God might repay him for doing so. Modern readers suffering the full range of afflictions must learn that same lesson, no divine strings attached.