What Job is responding to is his friend implying that Job has missed the point of his suffering. That what has happened is punishment, because that is the presupposition of how things work. That if he wants to recover, Job has some repentance to get on with.
6Then Job answered: 2“O that my vexation
were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
So Eliphaz is
implying Job is wrong in what he is saying, Job replies with, essentially, “Okey,
lets consider all that has happened to me, lets put it out there.”
3For then it would be heavier than the sand
of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.
The question of
balancing one’s life, makes me think of ancient Egypt, where the soul of the
dead was measured against a feather (I do not understand the theological
mechanics) but the point is there seems to be a balance between good and evil
in the religious consideration. If Job were found to be a sinner, then his
words would be rash-words cursing the day of his birth instead of seeking out
what sin he committed.
4For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;
my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Job does not
appear to be buying into what Eliphaz is saying, that this is punishment for
something Job has yet not admitted. But he is admitting that these tragedies
have befallen him from God.
5Does the wild ass bray over its grass, or
the ox low over its fodder? 6Can that which is tasteless be
eaten without salt, or is there any flavor in the juice of mallows? 7My
appetite refuses to touch them; they are like food that is loathsome to me.
In the metaphors
he uses here, Job appears to, after considering the explanation Eliphaz has
proposed, reject that this is a result of his sinning. That there is nothing in
the heart to repent.
8“O that I might have my request, and that God
would grant my desire; 9that it would please God to crush me,
that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
And Job continues
with a variation of his initial outcry, that the Lord would crush him, cut him
off even now and end the suffering.
10This would be my consolation; I would
even exult in unrelenting pain; for I have not denied the words of the Holy
One.
Because in ending
him, in crushing him, Job would die with his faith intact, that he has not done
something against the Lord to deserve what has happened.
11What is my strength, that I should wait?
And what is my end, that I should be patient? 12Is my strength
the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? 13In truth I
have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me.
But for Job,
there is no word from God, there is no explanation, he is in lamentation because
he has no strength to go on, but lives on anyway.
14“Those who withhold kindness from a friend
forsake the fear of the Almighty.
It looks like Job
speaks back against his friends. Eliphaz has not offered kindness to Job but
supposes that he can diagnose Job’s spiritual troubles and fix the problem.
15My companions are treacherous like a
torrent-bed, like freshets that pass away, 16that run dark with
ice, turbid with melting snow. 17In time of heat they
disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
As snow
disappears to liquid, then evaporates as the heat comes, so is the kindness of
his friends. That is what I see in this metaphor.
18The caravans turn aside from their
course; they go up into the waste, and perish. 19The caravans
of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope. 20They are disappointed
because they were confident; they come there and are confounded. 21Such
you have now become to me; you see my calamity, and are afraid.
He seems to be comparing
his friends to caravans, hoping to come to him to make a profit (as traders
seek to do) but instead, they have found his tragedy and they are confounded,
afraid.
22Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your
wealth offer a bribe for me’? 23Or, ‘Save me from an opponent’s
hand’? Or, ‘Ransom me from the hand of oppressors’?
Job is not asking
for intercession from his friends, not with God or anyone else.
24“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me
understand how I have gone wrong.
Eliphaz implies
that Job has sinned, Job asks for them to show him how and where.
25How forceful are honest words! But your
reproof, what does it reprove? 26Do you think that you can
reprove words, as if the speech of the desperate were wind?
But Job has not
done wrong, so the words of Eliphaz are empty.
27You would even cast lots over the orphan,
and bargain over your friend. 28“But now, be pleased to look at
me; for I will not lie to your face. 29Turn, I pray, let no
wrong be done. Turn now, my vindication is at stake. 30Is there
any wrong on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern calamity?
Job is imploring
his friends not to jump to conclusions, but to believe that this tragedy is without
the trigger of Job having done something wrong to deserve it.
7“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are
not their days like the days of a laborer? 2Like a slave who
longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages, 3so
I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to
me. 4When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’ But the night
is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn. 5My flesh is
clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again. 6My
days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope.
Without something
to repent, without understanding what has gone wrong, without something to fix,
Job just sees his life going on without break and without hope.
7“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will
never again see good. 8The eye that beholds me will see me no
more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. 9As the
cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up; 10they
return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more. 11“Therefore
I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will
complain in the bitterness of my soul.
There is no end
to the suffering in sight, Job feels he will just fade away in pain to
nothingness. In the meantime, he is not going to keep his tongue in check, he
is going to express his anguish and bitterness.
12Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set
a guard over me? 13When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my
couch will ease my complaint,’ 14then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions, 15so that I would choose
strangling and death rather than this body. 16I loathe my life;
I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
I see Job demanding
why his friends are even there. To guard him? To scare him? They are certainly
not helping. He just wants to die.
17What are human beings, that you make so much of
them, that you set your mind on them, 18visit them every
morning, test them every moment? 19Will you not look away from
me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
I see Job feeling
like he is some kind of sinful specimen that his friends have come to watch,
not letting him alone.
20If I sin, what do I do to you, you
watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a
burden to you? 21Why do you not pardon my transgression and
take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but
I shall not be.”
As he concludes,
I see Job’s perceptions moving from the friends who are not helpful to perceptions
about God ‘Why am I a burden to you? Why do you not pardon me?’ He is crying
out for relief.
This is the first
of nine calls are responses between Job and his friends. In my experience with
interpreters of Job, they all tend to be lumped together into the same pattern.
The friends presuppose that Job has sinned and must repent. Job knows he has
not and does not get what is happening. We shall see how that develops.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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