JOB (אִיֹּ֗וב, LXX ̓Ιώβ, G2724). The Eng. form derives from the Gr., which is not very close to the Heb. form. Earlier attempts at an etymology of the name have given way to the force of evidence from the newer sources. It is now well attested as a W Sem. name in the 2nd millennium from the Amarna Letters, Egyptian Execration Texts, Mari, Alalakh and Ugaritic documents. The original form of the name was Ayyab (um) which can mean “Where is (my) father” or possibly just “no father.” Either form might suggest an orphan or illegitimacy. The rather common ’iy from original ’ay (where or no) was often connected with other relatives such as brother (’ah) instead of father (’ab). In the Heb. ’iyyôb there was a dropping out of a weak letter (glottal stop) between vowels. For fuller explanation see Anchor Bible 15, pp. 5, 6. Job is the main character of the canonical book which bears his name. An analysis of the book follows.
Outline
1. Archeological and linguistic background. The uniqueness of the Book of Job derives from the depth and thoroughness with which it deals with subjects of human suffering and theodicy. Numerous documents from the ancient Biblical world touch upon these matters but none so eloquently and so fully as Job. There was “The First Job” (History Begins at Sumer, pp. 114-118), a man who in his affliction complained to his “personal” god in the course of his wailing for mercy:
My companion says not a true word to me,
My friend gives the lie to my righteous word...
My God...how long will you neglect me, leave me unprotected?
This “Job,” like the Biblical Job, was restored. “His god harkened to his bitter tears and weeping” which “soothed the heart of his god.”
Another poetic monologue also written in the 2nd millennium b.c. is commonly called “I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom” (ANET pp. 434-437). This Babylonian “Job” is not unlike the Sumer., for as a righteous sufferer he reckons with the thought that Marduk his god rules the world and allows him to suffer but that by means of ritual piety he will obtain mercy. But he had his doubts; “Oh that I only knew that these things are well pleasing to a god” (II, 33). But he too is restored and ends with a thanksgiving hymn and offerings which “make happy the mood” of the gods and “gladden their hearts” (IV, 40).
These documents deal with suffering but in a very simple way. Others more remote touch on some aspects of the Book of Job but are hardly to be compared. For example in “A Dispute over Suicide” (ANET pp. 405-407) a man of Egypt debates with his KA (soul?) over suicide because times are so bad (between Old and Middle Kingdoms) and there is no justice or love anymore. He finally decides death is better because men then become like gods in the nether world. As Job longed for an advocate (9:33; 16:19, 21; 19:25-27) so this man pleads for the advocacy of the gods and feels he is presenting his case before a divine tribunal (ibid. p. 405, n. 2). A somewhat superficial but striking likeness to the Book of Job is the A-B-A literary format in this document which begins, as does Job, with a short prose prologue, then follows a long poetic section and finally an epilogue in prose. This pattern finds expression in other ancient Near Eastern documents.
The only document dealing with the subject of theodicy which is so much a part of the Biblical book is “A Dialogue about Human Misery” (ANET p. 438). This is more like Job, being a dialogue involving a friend who accuses the sufferer of imbecility and evil thoughts and suggests he put aside such thoughts and seek the gracious favor of a god. The sufferer complains that animals do not have to make offerings, and even men who get rich quickly do so without paying attention to the gods while he who has done all this from his youth suffers. The friend warns him that “The mind of the god, like the center of the heavens, is remote; his knowledge is difficult, men cannot understand it” (lines 256, 257). The friend’s view seems to be that the gods have made men perverse and there is nothing that can be done about it. “Falsehood and untruth, they (the gods) conferred upon them forever” (line 280). The sufferer finally appeals to the gods for mercy and here the dialogue ends on a fatalistic note. The text comes from not earlier than about 1000 b.c. Hence, we see that while the literary genre and overall format of the Job lit. comes from the world of which it was a part, there is really nothing extant that compares with the Biblical book in its philosophical and theological profundity. Moreover, the Book of Job cannot be forced into any single classification as to its literary form. It is generally called Wisdom Literature, which was common in the Biblical world, but it has other elements such as drama and epic. The Book being largely poetry (the dialogues) and poetry being the most difficult and the most archaic form of a language, Job abounds in hapax legomena. The syntax and orthography tend to represent a dialect other than the substratum of Judaic Heb. found in most other parts of the OT. For the language of Job, therefore, one must turn to the cognates which have an extensive lit. like Arab. and Aram. for help in vocabulary and elements of grammar. Job has a strong Aram. flavor which had led some to view the Book as originally written in Aram. and later tr. into Heb. (Tur-Sinai, The Book of Job), but few agree. The mythological texts from Ugarit, a large corpus being poetry (q.v.), have shed a great amount of light on both the language and text of Job. There are those who feel the book is possibly some form of Edomite, Job being called “a son of the East” (Job 1:3); but there are no Edomite literary documents to test this view. All of these languages were a part of the NW branch of Sem. tongues and are closely related. The famous Moabite Stone which throws little light on Job, being prose, does show how the eastern phase of NW Sem. languages was closely related to Heb.
2. Authorship and literary unity. Is the book of single or composite authorship? The typical higher critical approach would make it a gradual aggregation of materials on an original base. Among the dialogues, the Wisdom Poem of ch. 28, the Elihu speeches in 32 to 37 and the divine discourses in 38 to 41 are said to be additions. Much has been made of the supposed incongruities between the Prologue, Epilogue and the Dialogues of the Book of Job. In the former Job is presented as a saint of God who will not curse God and die, while in the latter his complaints are bitter to the point of being shocking, while his friends seem to be saying all the right things. Then comes the unexpected rebuke of the friends and the commendation of Job in the Epilogue. This appears to destroy the unity of the book and when added to the different literary form (prose vs. poetry) and such things as Job’s ritual piety in the Prologue-Epilogue which is missing in the Dialogues, some have concluded the Prologue-Epilogue came from a different source. Usually the claim is made that the Prologue-Epilogue represents an old epic tale which was used as a framework by the author of the Dialogues. This tale about a legendary figure whose name was Job (Ezek 14:14, 20) was used to give more advanced concepts about theodicy a proper hoary antiquity. Ewald, who advances this view (Commentary on the Book of Job, pp. 17-21) says that it is not fully legitimate to ask “whether the work of the poet as we possess it contains history or fiction, as if a third thing were not possible...” (p. 20). The idea here is that the book is an artistic masterpiece put together skillfully by a great poet who used materials available to him. While it is true that the book does not claim to be written by Job (the Prologue-Epilogue is about him), nevertheless the discourses do claim to be from the lips of the same sufferer and the integrity of the book is impaired if this is not so.
Returning to the problem of the apparent incongruities mentioned above, the Israeli scholar Y. Kaufmann in The Religion of Israel (p. 335) explains God’s rebuking the friends and not Job by suggesting that they were guilty of conventional clichés and empty phrases, while Job had challenged God out of a moral duty to speak only the truth before him. This is much more satisfactory than assuming, as some do, that the Book has lost a large portion in which the friends like his wife told Job to curse God and die. Job himself accused his friends of saying things they did not believe to curry favor with God (13:7, 8). Without assuming there are no deletions or interpolations at all in Job, a fair mind must see the singular organic unity of this sizeable piece of lit. from OT times.
The brevity of Bildad’s speech and the omission of Zophar in chs. 24-27, added to Job’s suddenly taking up his friend’s argument, may indicate such a deletion and interpolation; but the complaints against the first divine speech (ch. 38) on the basis that God seems indifferent to man’s predicament is simply a modern rejection of one of the book’s most profound teachings regarding the sovereignty of God.
3. The date and canonicity. It is possible that the Book of Job existed outside of Israel for some time in oral form or even was partially written until an unknown Israelite author under divine inspiration put it into its present literary form. This would account for the non-Israelite flavor of the book but also account for its unquestioned place in the canon of Heb. inspired books. It seems likely that Job himself lived in the second millennium b.c. (2000-1000) and shared a tradition not far removed from the patriarchs. Job’s longevity of 140 years and his position as a man whose wealth was measured in cattle possessions, and the picture of roving Sabean and Chaldean tribesmen fits the 2nd millennium better than the first. The book, however, may not have reached its final form until the 1st millennium, perhaps in the Solomonic Age or somewhat later when Heb. Wisdom Literature was at its height. Attempts to put the authorship of Job in postexilic times, or even down to as late as the 2nd cent. b.c. have been dealt a decisive blow by the discovery of fragments of Job written in paleo-Heb. script among the Dead Sea materials.
It is most amazing that a book with nothing distinctively Israelite about it should find a place as part of the Heb. canon and never be seriously challenged. This proves that the Hebrews recognized the superior spiritual message of this book from the earliest times. Since inspiration was the test for canonicity and a major test for inspiration was the acceptance of the book by the community of God’s people, the Hebrews included Job in their third section of the canon of holy inspired books called The Writings (Hagiographa). The place of the book with relationship to Psalms and Proverbs has varied. Our Eng. Bible follows the Heb. tradition reflected in the LXX, while printed editions of the Heb. Bible follow the order Psalms, Proverbs, Job.
4. Place of origin. As noted, although Job is called “the greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3), the exact place of origin cannot be determined just as the exact date cannot be determined. The strong Aram. flavor may mean that Job and his friends lived near the centers of Aram. influence. During the 2nd millennium that would have been Aram Naharaim (The Aram of the Two Rivers) or northern Mesopotamia. At the end of the millennium Aramean tribes moved S, settled on the borders of Babylonia and Palestine but continued to control the caravan route through the Khabur area and at this time Aleppo and Damascus became Aramean centers. This was also the time when the Chaldean tribes invaded Babylonia (Cambridge Ancient History III, p. 4). If Job 1:17 means that Chaldean tribes were still roving, the event could reflect a time before they settled at about 1000 b.c. According to Genesis 36:15, one Eliphaz was the firstborn of Esau and Teman was one of the chiefs. Esau was considered the progenitor of Edom and geographically Teman was an Edomite city. Jeremiah 49:7 assumes Edom was noted for its centers of wisdom. Job, therefore, may have called in his counselors because of their fame for wisdom. Job himself lived in the land of Uz (1:1). Genesis 10:23 ties Uz with the Arameans as does Genesis 22:20-22. The latter passage (v. 22) also ties in Chesed (the Chaldeans) with the Arameans and the Uzites but does not make them identical. These passages refer to nations or tribes which were related sometimes only by their proximity. The land of Uz was E of Pal. but its precise location cannot be determined. Job had great influence in a town (29:7) the name of which is unknown. Edom was the same as, or was, the land of Uz (Lam 4:21). It seems then that Uz might have been the name of a wide region encompassing many tribes E of Pal. from Edom to Aram.
5. The text. Studies in the LXX of Job have revealed that the oldest Gr. text is shorter than the MT. This pre-Origen Gr. VS shows that the tr. omitted difficult lines (Anchor Bible 15, p. XL). Origen filled in the missing lines from Theodotian’s tr. from the Heb. The Gr. text is also somewhat of a paraphrase showing according to some a theological bias in places (ibid.).
Among other VSS the most helpful is the Syr. where the meaning of rare Heb. words can be detected. A Lat. tr. comes directly from the Heb. by Jerome in the 4th cent. a.d. Jerome was strongly influenced by the rabbis who taught him Heb. but also by Origen’s VS of the LXX which he also tr. into Latin. The MT is still the best source for the text of Job. Several pieces of a lost Targum of Job were found among the Dead Sea materials (The Ancient Library of Qumran, etc., F. M. Cross, Jr., p. 26).
6. Purpose and teaching. The author of the Book of Job purposes to show how the theological position of Job’s friends represents a shallow and only partial observation of life; that is, that man’s suffering is always proportionate to his sins. There is no studied attempt to justify God with regard to the innocent suffering, but the author does show God has higher purposes, and far from abandoning the sufferer communicates with him at the proper time. A subsidiary purpose is to show that though men are often sinful, weak and ignorant, they can, like Job, be relatively pure and upright even when in the midst of emotional turmoil and spiritual testing. Satan was permitted to test Job sorely, through the instrumentality of would-be helpers who used all the words of traditional piety. Job’s problem was the vexing question of theodicy; that is, the justice of God in relation to the innocent suffering. The book pursues a middle way between fatalism where divine power originates evil as in the Babylonian Theodicy and a view of human freedom which would ignore the sovereignty of God. There is no attempt to give a rational or philosophical solution to the problem of evil. The picture is the same as that given in Genesis where the accuser (Satan), as a creature of God, subject to His will, yet in rebellion, bears the responsibility for Job’s trouble, although, indeed, he is permitted to do so by God. The problem of theodicy is left on the note that God is a sovereign Deity who made and sustains all that is, who in His omnipotence and omniscience can and does use secondary means to bring about His higher and perfect purposes. One of these higher purposes in Job’s suffering is to prove to Satan that Job did not live righteously only that he might prosper. Satan challenges God to prove that Job’s devotion is pure not only by removing his wealth but also by destroying his health.
Initially Job stands the test even when his wife says, “Curse God, and die” (2:9). But as his troubles multiply Job has second thoughts and in his dialogues with his counselors he wrestles with God, challenges God, sinks into depths of despair and rises to peaks of trust and confidence in God. Throughout the book Job defends his own essential innocence (not sinlessness) in rejecting the view of his friends, which rarely moves from the single theme that suffering is the immediate corollary of sin, and that because Job has grievously sinned God has become his enemy. Their view Job emphatically rejects but his own view seems to be in a state of flux, for he says many unfortunate things. Yet in it all, he does not do what Satan said he would; he does not curse God to His face (2:5).
While the counselors make no progress in their arguments Job grows more and more serene as he approaches his eventual confrontation with God for which he has been asking. Job wants to argue his case before almighty God and also calls for an advocate to plead his cause at the divine Tribunal. He is confident he will be vindicated, if not in this life, then later; but he is certain this will be in the flesh (19:26). The counselors said many good things, but they could not seem to move from the fallacious idea that the righteous always prosper and sinners always suffer and conversely that suffering always implies sin and prosperity always implies righteousness. Their view was not always put so crassly. Eliphaz implies that since all have sinned, suffering is to some extent due to all and therefore the righteous might suffer a little and the unrighteous prosper a little, but that the righteous never come to an untimely end (4:7; 18:16-19); and the wicked when they prosper are in dread of the calamity ahead which they deserve (15:20ff.). Another feature of their monotonous arguments is that even if an unrighteous man prospers all his life his children will eventually pay the penalty (5:4; 20:10). Their idea that suffering is chastisement to purify the character (5:17ff.) is quite in keeping with the rest of Scripture. Much of their argument is orthodox expression, true in the abstract, but it did not necessarily apply to Job. It is not so much what they say that offends Job, but what they leave out which makes what they say only a part of the truth. They finally reach the conclusion that since Job seems so obstinate and refuses even the idea of the disciplinary purpose of his suffering, that he must have committed sins of great enormity. The position of the friends was normative Mesopotamian thought, but the OT also has in it the stories of the innocent sufferers Abe l, Uriah and Naboth. Jesus, of course, taught His disciples that individual retribution in this life simply does not follow. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him” (John 9:3).
Some have suggested the OT sometimes shares in this erroneous view. As, for example, Psalm 1:3 says of the righteous, “In all that he does, he prospers,” and Psalm 37:25 says, “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread.” This discrepancy is superficial because the Psalms are not making specific applications, as were the counselors of Job, but are expressing general principles. Perhaps the point where Job was agonizing the most was how to integrate those valid parts of what the friends said with his own experience. Job had no answer because God has not seen fit to give man a reason for everything He does. So Job blows hot and cold. Sometimes he blames the Lord for tormenting him and wishes God would leave him alone (7:17-21; 10:20; 19:22). At other times he yearns for God to communicate with him (14:15) and that he might see God. This emotional instability of Job in all likelihood arose from an internal conflict based on his intellectual acceptance of this false view of suffering (so much for so much sin) which conflicted with his experience.
The question arises as to whether the purpose of the book is to formulate an exact rational answer to the problem of theodicy, the justice of God in innocent suffering. In all Job’s dialogues he nowhere calls for such, nor does the Lord give such an answer when He appears to speak to Job and his friends. What Job does call for is a vindication of the fact that he has not committed heinous sins for which he is being punished. When God does rebuke Job it is for his ignorance (38:2, 13) and presumption (42:2), not for a profligate life. God is apparently telling Job in chs. 38-41 that neither he nor his friends know enough about His ways to make judgments concerning the rightness of His dealings with men. This impugns esp. the strictness of the friends and their whole theory of suffering which implicitly laid claim to complete knowledge of God’s ways.
Even though in His appearance God does not deal with the problem of theodicy and gives no rational explanation or excuse for Job’s suffering, nevertheless Job is not crushed, only rebuked, and even that not as severely as his friends (42:7). Job now realizes God does not need man’s advice to control the world and that no extreme of suffering gives man the right to question God’s wisdom or justice and on this he repents (42:2-6). On seeing the power and glory of God Job’s rebellious attitude dissolves and his resentment disappears. Job now gets at least part of what he sought for, his friends do not see him pronounced guilty and therefore the idea that suffering is proof of sin is refuted.
Nowhere does God impugn the basic integrity of Job’s character, and hence Satan has failed and Job’s testing has come to an end. He has not demanded restoration, only vindication of his character; but God, having achieved His higher purpose through Job, now restores him who in his suffering, despite moments of weakness, surpassed in righteousness those who had not suffered as he had. After all his doubts and bitterness Job arrived at that point of spiritual maturity where he could pray for those who abused him (42:10; Luke 6:28). The issues raised in this book are indeed among the most profound and difficult of human existence. The answer was already on Job’s lips in the Prologue when he said, “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21b); and “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (2:10). The truth Job knew was that God must be God, and that of all values and all existence only God and His glory must ultimately prevail.
7. Outline and content.
Outline and content
Summary of contents:
I. The prologue (1:1-2:13)
The prologue presents Job as a man of singular character and very prosperous. For reasons about which the reader is informed but which Job does not know, Job’s wealth and health are taken from him while his character remains intact. The writer uses great restraint in the choice of details giving no extraneous information but in typical Sem. style he uses repetition skillfully for emphasis and effect (1:1, 8; 2:3 and 1:22; 2:10 and 1:14-19).
A. Job’s felicity (1:1-5).
Job was a man from the land of Uz which land was somewhere E of Pal. on the edge of the desert (1:19) but where farming was carried on (1:14) and also near a town (29:7). Job’s wealth is given in terms similar to those used of the patriarchs, that is, animal possessions, sons and servants. Job is perfect (tām) and upright (yāšār). These terms do not mean sinless but complete and straight in character.
B. Job tested (1:6-2:13).
There are two scenes in heaven (1:6-11 and 2:1-5) each followed by a series of happenings which result from these encounters between the Lord and Satan. In the first scene Satan questions Job’s motives in his religious devotion. Is it for nothing that Job serves God? (1:9). If God would remove the hedge about Job and his house and let Satan smite him, Job would curse God to His face. After Job’s children and wealth are taken away under the permissive will of God still Job maintains his integrity toward God. Satan then calls on the Almighty to permit him to smite Job’s body. For “all that a man has he will give for his life” (2:4). Satan then proceeds to afflict Job with a horrible disease. At this point even Job’s wife advises, “Curse God, and die” (2:9); “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (v. 10).
It is at this point that his would-be comforters arrive. They sit with him seven days and nights mourning his affliction, and finally Job breaks the silence with the opening words of the so-called dialogues. Job utters a lengthy soliloquy cursing the day of his birth (ch. 3).
II. The dialogues (3:1-41:34).
A. Job curses the day of his birth. Job, now in a state of despondency, damns the day of his birth. The theme continues throughout the chapter. He wishes this day had never dawned (vv. 4, 9) or that there might have been an eclipse of the sun (v. 5) or that it never would have been numbered among the days of the year (v. 6). He yearns that the diviners might have put a curse on it so that the rays of that dawn never would have come up. Would that he had been a stillbirth, for then Job imagines he might now be at rest or even in the company of the illustrious dead (v. 14) rather than a blighted man lying in squalor.
Job questions the wisdom of God in prolonging life for those who are in misery (v. 20) and who long for death (v. 21). He ends his sad soliloquy on the mournful thought that the thing he feared most has happened to him; that is, he is in a state of complete torment physically and emotionally and there is no deliverance, no end in sight.
The state of mind Job displays in this ch. marks his lowest ebb, the nearest he ever came to fulfilling Satan’s prediction that he would curse God to His face. This attitude resulted from the repeated question, why? (3:11, 20). Although not cursing God he is certainly questioning God’s sovereignty and wisdom and for this he was finally rebuked and repents (40:1, 2; 42:1-6).
B. The first cycle.
1. Eliphaz (4:1-5:27).
Eliphaz the Temanite, the oldest of the counselors, is the first to speak. He expresses both in words and in spirit the viewpoint which the friends will repeat over and over to Job. He begins modestly (4:2) and even a bit complimentary toward Job, but before his second statement is finished he is rebuking the sufferer (4:5) and telling Job that his only hope lies in a life of purity and fear of God (4:6). Verses 7 to 9 contain the traditional view of suffering in all its simplicity, the thought that the innocent do not perish but the plowers of iniquity reap the same (4:7, 8). As an ultimate principle this idea is not invalid but Eliphaz obviously is implicating Job and therefore applying the ultimate principle to a specific time and person which he did not know enough to do. Verses 10 and 11 of ch. 4 might be taken as a warning to Job, who is here the old lion who does not die but just wastes away.
Eliphaz employs an age old means used to impress others with one’s religious authority. He tells of an occult experience, a vision in the night which was so frightening that his hair stood up (4:15) and he heard a spirit announce in a hushed voice the message of vv. 17-21 regarding the otherness of God as One so far removed from His creatures of clay that they are like fragile moths whose lives meaninglessly pass away forever (4:20).
Eliphaz continues in ch. 5 to describe the lot of foolish sinners who never prosper and who always have trouble (vv. 1-7), but he presents himself as one who commits his way to God (vv. 8-16). By implication Eliphaz admonishes Job to “despise not the chastening of the Almighty” (vv. 17-27). If Job will only do this he will soon find that he is prospering again (vv. 19, 24-26, etc.). Eliphaz finishes with the admonition that his great wisdom has come from his own research and therefore deserves close attention (27).
2. Job’s reply (6:1-7:21).
Job does not bother to answer Eliphaz specifically but continues to give vent to his anguish. How great his anguish is! If weighed against his words his vexation would be heavier than the sand of the sea. That is why he complains so vehemently for he has ample unsalted food; worse, they are putrid. Job pleads again for death (6:8-13). He complains that his flesh is not made of stone or bronze; it would be a comfort for him to die. Job chides his friends for their lack of pity. A sick man should have the pity of his friends even if he renounced the fear of God, but his friends have betrayed him. They have seen him in this awful condition and have panicked even when he was asking for nothing but honest words. This, he says, is exactly what they have failed to say (v. 25).
Job challenges them to prove their contention that he has grievously sinned. They are callous enough to cast lots over an orphan or barter over a friend (v. 27). He pleads that they soften up and see that what he says is right.
Job’s reply continues in ch. 7 where addressing God Job laments man’s plight and hardship on earth (vv. 1, 2). He describes in detail his own sad condition. “My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; and my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh” (v. 5). He laments man’s predicament in death where man seems simply to evaporate and vanish. “He who goes down to Sheol does not come up” (v. 9). At this Job says he will not restrain his tongue any longer (v. 11) but will complain with all the bitterness of his soul. He then begins to accuse God of tormenting him with dreams and nightmares, of being like a watchman over his soul, inspecting him every morning and testing him every moment. He asks God to leave him alone, please to forgive him and let him lie down and die (vv. 12-21).
3. Bildad (8:1-22).
Bildad the Shuhite now speaks. He charges Job with producing nothing but a big wind. If Job’s children have sinned they have been punished for it and Job himself could be delivered if only he were pure and upright. Surely Job should study what the ancients have said and find out what happens to people who forget God. The wicked wither as plants do when they are deprived of water (vv. 11-13) and their confidence is like a spider’s web (v. 14) that can be brushed away in a second (v. 18) but Job should realize God never rejects the upright (v. 20).
4. Job’s reply (9:1-10:22).
Perhaps with sarcasm Job agrees with what Bildad has said but he cannot see how man ever can be justified before God. He goes on to tell what he means by this statement, that is, in argumentation God always wins because God is too wise and powerful for man no matter how clever or mighty the man may be. Beginning in v. 5 Job describes God as the great controller of all the universe. “How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?” (v. 14). Here Job seems to accuse God of being callous, as one who destroys both the guiltless and wicked (v. 22), and who laughs at the calamity of the innocent. Job continues to complain that God allows the earth to be controlled by the wicked, there is no justice on earth, and God is to blame (v. 24). Job’s days are fleeing by and he has no hope because he feels God holds him guilty (v. 28). Even if he were clean (v. 30) God would plunge him in the muck so that his own clothes would abhor him. Moreover, the sufferer cannot even challenge God because the latter is so great. Job wishes for an arbiter who could equalize the situation (v. 33). He calls on God to put aside His club so that Job could speak to Him without fear (v. 35).
But now, Job says he is sick of life (10:1) and he is going to continue to give vent to his bitterness. He addresses God by asking if it is right that He should oppress and despise the creatures of His own hands while He favors the wicked (10:3). Job questions whether God can really sympathize with man’s predicament (10:4-7). God will not let him alone even though He made man out of clay. Now He seeks to destroy him (10:8, 9). Even though God fashioned his flesh and bones in the womb and granted him a time of happiness (10:10-12), yet God did it while planning to let him come to this horrible situation. Job sees himself as a victim whom God is oppressing as a lion stalks its prey (10:10). Why then did God allow him to be born? Would it not be better if God would let him alone for the few days he has left before he goes down to the land of darkness and gloom (10:20-22).
Despite Job’s failure to see the love of God and his feeling of God-forsakenness, it is obvious he is still wrestling with God and is by no means ready to curse God to His face.
5. Zophar (11:1-20).
Zophar takes up the challenge of Job lest it go unanswered. He will not allow Job’s babbling to silence him. If God were to speak He would tell Job how guilty he is. God is greater than all; He sees and knows all the evil of men. If only Job will reach out a hand toward God and put away his evildoing God would lift him up and he would be restored and soon forget all his troubles (vv. 13-19). Let Job keep in mind that the wicked have no refuge and no hope (v. 20).
6. Job (12:1-14:22).
The first half of this reply Job addresses to his friends (12:1-13:19), the second half he addresses to God (13:20-14:22). He starts by making sarcastic reference to the wisdom of his friends (vv. 1, 2). Everything they have said he already knows (v. 3) but they understand very little of Job’s troubles (vv. 4, 5). They understand his problem about as well as do the beasts and creeping things (vv. 7-9). True, God is sovereign controlling all things but He seems to be capricious in the way He does it (vv. 20-25). Job claims he understands that God is almighty in wisdom and power (12:1, 2) but he still wants to argue his case with God (v. 3). He accuses his “friends” of being dishonest, whitewashers and worthless healers because they overlook the real problem which is God’s use of His might. They speak deceitfully in God’s behalf (v. 7), piously contending for God in hope of currying favor with Him (vv. 8, 9). When God searches them out they are going to be rebuked (vv. 9-12).
Job requests they keep quiet while he boldly speaks. Taking his life in his hand he bravely declares that even if God slays him he has the confidence that he will yet (after death) maintain the basic integrity of his ways before God (vv. 13-16). He pleads with God to let him set out his case and is confident he will be justified (vv. 17-19). Two things Job requests of God, to withdraw His hand and cease terrifying him and to communicate with him (vv. 20-22). Then Job confesses his sins and pleads that God hide not His face nor become his enemy (vv. 23-28).
In ch. 14 Job laments man’s predicament, “few days, and full of trouble.” God knows how pathetically short Job’s days are. Why will He not forbear and let man enjoy his day (vv. 1-6). Job compares man to a tree which though cut down can be revived by “the scent of water” (9). Poor man, he dies and does not rise for ages on end. Again Job yearns for death, but this time he suggests that man too may live again. In a moment of supreme tranquility, Job confesses he will gladly suffer “all the days of his warfare” and wait patiently for his release to come when he will hear God call and have a happy relationship with God again (vv. 14, 15). But Job sinks back again into despondency. He feels at the end of this discourse that God will not forgive him (v. 16), that he has no hope (v. 19) and must look for more pain (v. 22) and final death (v. 20).
C. The second cycle of speeches.
1. Eliphaz (15:1-35).
This time Eliphaz is not courteous toward Job. He frankly labels Job’s speech as hot air and charges him as guilty of the worst kind of impiety because he talks as if he were the first man who ever lived, who has a monopoly on wisdom, esp. the counsels of God. Does Job not know that his counselors are older than Job’s father? Does he not know how unrighteous man is? For even the angels and heaven itself are impure in God’s sight (vv. 11-16). “The wicked are always tormented” and “his ruin is always sure.” From vv. 17-35 Eliphaz gives a lengthy harangue about the troubles which come on wicked man (meaning Job, of course), who stretches out his hands against God (v. 25).
2. Job’s reply (16:1-17:16).
Job is sick of their prattle. If the tables were turned and they were suffering he could harangue them with words and shake his head at them (vv. 1-5). At this Job begins to use figures of speech to describe what he thinks are God’s actions against him. God is as one gnashing upon him with His teeth. God has set him up like a target for the archers and warriors breach him like the wall of a city is breached (vv. 9-14). His miserable condition is such that his face is red with weeping and his eyelids are covered with darkness (v. 16). There is no justification for this because there has been no violence in his hands and his prayers have not been hypocritical.
Moreover, Job claims to have an advocate in heaven, one who pleads his cause before God, as a man pleads for his friend. This is the umpire of 9:33 and the vindicator of 19:25.
These advocate passages in the Book of Job are an amazing insight into man’s deep need of a mediator between himself and God. Job, with all his complaining, reached an understanding of the mystery of godliness which the counselors did not even approach. Theirs was an ad nauseam repetition of a defective view of suffering. When Job called for an advocate who could put his hand on God and on man he was touching in a prophetic way on man’s need for a Reconciler who would be both human and divine. The forensic aspect of the mediatorial work of Christ (Rom 5:1-5) fulfilled the great need of sinful man who stands in the presence of the Almighty overwhelmed and condemned. As a believer Job felt this need. How much he understood is open to question.
After this moment of hope Job sinks back into despair. His spirit is broken, his days are spent, he looks only for the grave (17:1-3). He has no plans, no desires, no hope (17:11-16).
3. Bildad (18:1-21).
Bildad has no patience with what he calls Job’s word snares and he cannot understand why Job thinks they are stupid as beasts. Does Job expect the world to stop for him (v. 4)? From v. 5 on he dwells on the horrible fate of wicked men, obviously meaning Job. Such men may expect to have terrors on every side and to be afflicted with fatal disease and plucked from their home to face the king of terrors, death itself. Nor may they expect to have any posterity or remembrance in the earth.
4. Job’s reply (19:1-29).
How long are Job’s friends going to vex his soul with their accusing words? Cannot they see how violently God has dealt with him (vv. 6, 7)? Certainly it is not right that he should be treated as an adversary of God (v. 11), an enemy that needs to be destroyed. God has caused his family and acquaintances to reject him (vv. 13-20). Will the friends join God in persecuting him, will they not have pity on him (vv. 21, 22)? Job wishes that his protestation of integrity might be eternally recorded (vv. 23, 24); perhaps implying that someday, then, they would see he is right. For Job knows that his Vindicator (Kinsman Redeemer) lives who will someday stand upon the earth and witness in his behalf (vv. 25, 26). Job longs for that day when he himself will behold God (v. 27) and in that day his friends will be judged for their false accusations.
5. Zophar (20:1-29).
Job’s foolish words have made Zophar angry. Does Job not know one of the oldest facts of history (v. 4), that the wicked prosper only for a moment and then always perish forever like dung never to be seen again (vv. 7-9)? Even their children are reduced to poverty (v. 10) and the evil that seemed sweet becomes venom within the wicked (vv. 11-16). He never gets to enjoy the riches which he gained by oppression and robbery (vv. 12-22) because God always punishes the wicked with His wrath (vv. 23-26). Even the heavens and the earth testify against the wicked and the loss of everything is his portion from God (vv. 27-29).
6. Job’s reply (21:1-34).
They have it all wrong, says Job, for the wicked often live to old age enjoying all kinds of prosperity (v. 7). Why is it that far from punishing them God appears to bless them even when they openly defy Him (vv. 8-15). Occasionally calamity comes to them, but how often (v. 17)? True, sometimes the children of the wicked suffer for their father’s sin but the wicked man himself escapes (vv. 18-21). Those who enjoy prosperity and those who never taste the good things of life both end up in the dust (vv. 22-26). Job accuses his friends of being hostile toward him, even plotting against him (v. 27). But their ideas are no comfort at all and are sheer falsehood (v. 34). Any traveler can tell them how many wicked men prosper (vv. 29, 30). The premise that says all the wicked suffer, Job suffers, and therefore Job is wicked, is simply not true to the facts.
D. The third cycle of speeches (22:1-31:40).
1. Eliphaz (22:1-30).
Man cannot benefit God by being righteous. On the other hand, does Job think God is reproving him for his righteousness? Indeed not, it is because his wickedness is great (vv. 1-5). Eliphaz now gives a detailed catalogue of the kinds of sin Job has prob. committed. He has oppressed the poor, the widow and the orphan (vv. 5-9). God may be far away in heaven but He sees and He will surely punish (vv. 12-20). So why does not Job yield to Him and repent and take delight in Shaddai who will surely hear and restore Job and even enable him to intercede for others (vv. 21-30).
2. Job’s reply (23:1-24:25).
God’s hand is heavy on Job but still he cannot find God so that he might lay his case before Him (23:1-7). Yes, God eludes him (vv. 8, 9) perhaps because God knows Job’s cause is just (v. 10) and that he is an upright man who has not neglected the Lord’s commandments (vv. 11, 12); and yet God continues to terrify him (vv. 13-17). In ch. 24 Job questions why God has not set times to judge the ungodly (vv. 1, 2) when there is so much violence and oppression in the earth (vv. 3-17).
Some feel that beginning at 24:18 Job takes up the argument of his counselors, that is, that the wicked do not prosper. Therefore the words, “you say,” which are not found in the Heb. text are added, making vv. 18-25 a quotation by Job of their argument (see RSV). Others feel this is a misplaced portion and belongs to one of the counselors (Anchor Bible 15, p. xviii).
3. Bildad (25:1-6).
Bildad now gives a short speech in which he dwells on the majesty of God whom he feels rules with terror (vv. 2, 3) and before whom man, a mere maggot or worm, cannot possibly be pure (vv. 4-6).
There are those who feel Bildad’s argument is brief because the dialogue has broken down, the arguments are exhausted. Others maintain that something has happened to the text in chs. 24 to 27 and that due to a misplacement 26:5-14, where Job deals with God’s power, should be appended to 25:1-6 (Anchor Bible 15, p. xviii). Also suggested by Anchor Bible is the insertion of the words “Zophar the Naamathite answered” before 27:8 since Zophar’s third speech which completes the cycle would otherwise be missing and the subject matter of 27:8-23 is said to be the counselors’ argument about God’s punishment of the wicked. That Zophar had a third speech is questionable. Chapter 27:11 and 12 sound like Job rebuking his friends. It is entirely possible that Job, finally realizing he was overstating the case about the wicked man’s prosperity, now balances his argument with a firm statement of God’s punishment of the wicked.
4. Job’s reply (26:1-14; 27:1-23).
Once again Job with irony rebukes his friends for giving no help (26:2-4). In contrast to their powerlessness and lack of wisdom Job extols the power and wisdom of God in a magnificent soliloquy (vv. 5-14). It is God who hung the earth on nothing (v. 7), who binds up the waters in thick clouds (v. 8), who set the limit to the circle of the horizon (v. 10), who makes the pillars of the heavens (the mountains) tremble (v. 11), who by His strength can stir up or make calm the elements whether it be in the boisterous sea or in the heavens (vv. 12, 13). All this is but a small whisper of the thunder of His power (v. 14). Although Job uses terms common in Canaanite mythology, Yam, Rahab and the fleeing serpent (cf. Isa 27:1), his reference is to natural phenomena with which these names were identified.
Those who claim Zophar had a third speech usually begin it at about 27:8 and assume that an introductory line was lost or taken out by an overzealous scribe who wanted to tone down Job’s argument. But it is just as likely that Job awaited Zophar’s reply and when none came he then took up again the discourse (27:1) and for the first time he uses a solemn oath (v. 2) to declare his integrity and their deceit in accusing him (v. 5).
5. Job’s poem on wisdom (28:1-28).
It is said that either Job himself or the Israelite writer who composed the book at this point inserted a poem on the inscrutable wisdom of God. If this is Job speaking, how do his words fit into the rest of his argument and how could a man having such a disturbed state of mind give a poem so full of meditative tranquility? On the latter point it is well known that people who are disturbed sometimes produce poems or hymns in unexplained moments of extreme tranquility. Nor dare one ignore the influence of the Spirit of God on Job. Many of the things he has said were his own fallible reasoning. Now, near the end of his rope and still without a satisfactory answer to the conflict raging within him of how to reconcile his sufferings with his own integrity of life, he turns his mind to the wisdom of God. Man’s ability to find and extract precious metals and gems from the earth is amazing, but man cannot find wisdom so easily (v. 12). After a grand comparison of these achievements of man (vv. 1-11) with the wisdom of the Almighty (vv. 12-27), man is reminded that his true wisdom is to fear the Lord and obey Him.
6. Job’s peroration and final oath (29:1-31:40).
Job begins his final remarks by recalling his former happy and prosperous condition, when everyone poor and rich, young and old respected him (29:1-10). Those were the days when he was a champion of the poor, the orphan and the widow. He was “eyes to the blind” and “feet to the lame” and he resisted the wicked (29:11-17). Surely he thought, he would continue a strong man into ripe old age (29:18-20). Instead boys whose fathers were beneath him are now deriding him (30:1-7) and even worse he has become a gibe to vile hoodlums (30:15-23). Job laments that he who once wept for the needy and the poor now finds himself forsaken, lonesome, diseased and dying (30:24-31).
In ch. 31 Job employs a form associated with ancient Near Eastern oaths of covenant allegiance to emphasize his final protestation of innocence. A vassal would use a formulation in which he called down curses on himself as proof that he was free from violating any of the stipulations laid down by his Sovereign. Such an oath was believed to have great efficacy and therefore was the ultimate test of honesty (cf. Exod 22:10, 11; Num 5:20-22; Deut 27:11-26; 28:18, 31, 35; 1 Kings 8:31, 32; also the Hittite Soldiers’ Oath ANET, 353, 354). Job’s protestation of innocence is likened also to the negative confession in the Egyp. Book of the Dead where the deceased at the final judgment lists the sins he has not done (ANET, 34). It is difficult for modern westerners to realize the importance of the steps Job is taking which in his culture was more meaningful than swearing before a judge and jury where perjury has far less terrifying sanctions. By taking such oaths and affixing his signature (ANET, 35) Job closed the argument; there was nothing more the counselors could say; for Job must either suffer the sanctions or be acquitted. The list of sins Job denies are largely social sins; he has not committed adultery (31:9-12) nor mistreated slaves recognizing the unity of the human race as creatures of God (vv. 13-15<