Job

Introduction

The Book of Job is much more than a “story.” It deals in depth with the major questions of the human condition. The misfortunes of Job—after having been abundantly blessed all his life, he is reduced to utmost misery—are merely a pretext to have us reflect on this reality: human life on earth is not satisfying. Suffering and death would not be so dark if it were not for this malaise or scandal that comes from the absence of God in our world.

Job only needs to contemplate nature to believe in God and divine providence. However, his misfortunes bring him to reconsider the concept he had of a tacit agreement between the just man, himself, and the just God.

Job accuses and cries out to God with all the force of his thwarted hope and, in the end, God will have to intervene.

The Book of Job

The starting point of this book is a popular tale found in the first and last pages (1:1–2:13 and 42:10-17): the story of the holy man Job. The Lord had tested him by taking everything away from him; but, in spite of that, Job remained faithful. In the end, God gave everything back to him.

The moral was somewhat simplistic. Then, an unknown author wrote the poems of Chapters 3–41. There, a very different Job from the first one accuses the human condition; and his three friends confront him with the answers of traditional wisdom.

These chapters constitute the most sizable collection of sapiential literature in the Scriptures. It may be helpful to recall that this new section presents a view of life that is very different from the view proposed in the books of the law and the prophetic books. These were mostly interested in the history of Israel, the ups and downs of the Sinai Covenant that had transformed Israel into a people set apart and the bearer of a universal mission.

On the other hand, here, the history and vocation of Israel are forgotten (seemingly, at least). The author has returned to what constitutes the lives of all humans, whatever their countries or religions may be. Human beings are before their destiny, with no other revelation than what nature is telling them in a thousand ways, what the tradition of their ancestors has handed down to them and has interpreted for them. Human beings are not in a world without God. On the contrary, they see God’s presence everywhere. Yet, they are first conditioned by their material existence; and the fact that so many people live in inhuman conditions raises questions about God’s honesty and the way God treats human beings.

Job’s discourses are strongly marked by the culture of his time. Above all, he insists on being known as a just man: honor and shame are decisive criteria for tribes. Hence, when his misfortunes have made him look guilty, the need to appeal to an arbitrator or a tribunal to clear his good name arises. The book is going to show that there is no answer: God’s intervention in Chapters 38–42 moves in a different direction from the conclusion in 42:10-17. We remain with our malaise and we will not be healed before we see God.

1.1 Job lives in a foreign pagan land (Uz would be in the southern part of Palestine) in ancient times. His position is enviable: he is a leader of nomads, somewhat like Abraham, and lacks nothing. Yet he is only a pawn in world politics, or better, in heavenly politics. God holds a council with the heavenly beings, namely, the angels, and looks at things which escape Job. In this case, God is challenged by Satan, the enemy, the spirit who promotes evil, and, in spite of himself, God has to test Job in order to defend his own honor.

And so, from the very start, humans are put in their place. They are not the center of the world, nor can they demand that God stop the course of history for their sake.

This intervention of Satan is one of the means to which believers spontaneously resort to justifying God. Because, in the final analysis, that is where the problem lies. As long as we live without God, no one is responsible for evil except ourselves. If we have good and evil gods, we know whom to blame. If there is only one God, he is responsible for both good and evil and Job’s words in 2:10 also apply to him.

Curse God and die! (2:9) Job’s wife speaks foolishly, with reproaches to God which are always hopeless.

2.11 As we remarked in the introduction, this is the beginning of the dialogue on suffering, leaving aside the story of Job, the popular figure who accepted God’s will without arguing as we saw in Chapter 2.

3.1 Cursed be the day I was born (v. 3). These first verses repeat what Jeremiah said in a moment of despair (see Jer 20:14). God’s friends have at times spoken in the same way, others—less solid—have thought of suicide.

Why is light given to the miserable… whose path has vanished (vv. 20-23)? Why are children born crippled or blind, or destined for an atrocious death? We would be wrong to only think of the marginalized or those crushed by misfortune. It’s in the world where nothing is wanting where people are not desperate, but without hope in the midst of gadgets: it is there where young couples opt for death in not wanting to have children.

In past centuries people were driven by the uncontainable energy of life. They lived and made sacrifices for the survival of their people. Our parents worked and procreated without asking themselves why. When people reach maturity in critical thinking, they need an answer to this question: Why live if, in the end, life leads nowhere?

4.1 Eliphaz is a believer. Faced with Job’s grief, he repeats what was commonly said in those days:

– God is just in this life: he rewards the just with health and prosperity.

– If you are sick and abandoned, it is because you have sinned.

Eliphaz is not wrong in recalling that the wicked are afflicted with misfortune and that God’s providence favors his friends. Scripture does state that, as anyone can easily verify. The prophets did not hesitate to repeat to Israel that its difficulties were the consequence of their sins. Deuteronomy also declares this (Dt 30:15-20) and the Book of Judges claims to prove it through historical events (Jdg 2:11-19).

Eliphaz claims he is speaking because of a revelation from God such as many prophets had in their dreams. He is surely pointing out the truth: Can a mortal be just in the eyes of God? Can anyone be pure before God? People complain that life is meaningless, but maybe sin prevents them from seeing its meaning.

Have you seen a guiltless man perish? (v. 7). People of faith understand that God “brings the powerful down and he exalts the humble,” but daily experience often seems to show the opposite. According to the Gospel, wealth can be a negative sign. Eliphaz speaks with such assurance because he has not suffered in his own flesh, nor does he pay enough attention to those who suffer.

6.1 Job is bitter towards all these friends who make speeches but do not bring him peace. Now he begs God to let him die before he rebels against him under the pressure of evil (vv. 8-10).

In verses 15-30, Job emphasizes the abyss which separates those who suffer from those who come to console. How many disguises at a patient’s bedside? Those consoling the afflicted want to hide their own confusion before pain and their inability to really lighten suffering. However, the sick person is not fooled and feels more isolated in realizing he or she is not told the truth.

In Chapter 7, Job addresses an absent God. Job does not know God–Father and the trial brings out in him suspicions against a jealous God who watches people in order to punish them.

Yet Job’s complaint against God reminds us of the friction between people who love each other, and precisely because they love each other they are more demanding.

What is man that you make much of him (7:17)? If God is watching over his favorite creatures at all times, could it not be because he cannot live without them?

9.1 Job is upset before an inaccessible God. The Creator’s greatness does not console the one who suffers without being heard. The misfortune of a single just one distorts creation.

Again, Job not only questions evil, but also the very situation created by human existence with its freedom. The God who made us free persons must also be a Person, and as long as he does not speak to us, his silence may be interpreted as a refusal to dialogue and a proof of indifference toward us.

Can a mortal be just before God (v. 2)? The same question is found in 4:17 and 22:2. This guilt feeling and the opposite feeling of hostility towards God are two sides of the same coin: the human condition is unacceptable as long as God makes people who cannot find him.

If I were innocent, my own mouth would condemn me (v. 20). Job reminds us of those notorious trials where militants, unjustly accused by their own party, come to admit their guilt “spontaneously.” Similarly, many times a single mishap would be enough to make us feel sinful.

In your goodness you gave me life (10:12). Job cannot deny that God is concerned about his creatures, and he remembers the wonders God achieves in the pregnant mother. These attentions only open the way for his demands: gifts coming to us from people above arouse our suspicions more than our gratitude: I know what was in your mind (10:13).

After years without thinking, people begin to reflect and it is then that the absence of the Creator may prepare them for rebellion.

12.1 Zophar kept on repeating the arguments of the wise: if you are suffering, you are guilty; mend your ways and you will be healed.

Then Job continues to accuse God. He lists some of the injustices which we see daily. Then, in verses 14-25, he emphasizes that God’s power manifests itself, especially in his destructive action. God upsets the fortune of the powerful, distorts the wisdom of the sages, prevents people from being successful, and does not allow their ventures to last. In the midst of a perfect universe, human history has no meaning.

13.1 Faced with a meaningless life, human wisdom does not have an adequate answer. So Job accuses these wise men who pretend to justify God while forgetting reality (vv. 1-6). Will you defend God with false inventions (v. 7)? It is better to keep quiet and admit our own ignorance.

This boldness might even save me (v. 16). Job is so convinced that God is just that he wants to force him to break his silence. Perhaps God will make him die because of his boldness but, at least, Job will have had an answer and he will know why he dies (vv. 13-20).

Job’s bold attitude corrects the widespread image of a believer as one who accepts with resignation without trying to understand. Job does not fall down before God like a slave, but rather, being conscious of his dignity in the eyes of his Maker, he asks for an explanation.

14.1 Through his personal case, Job presents a general criticism of the human condition, and he does it in a way very similar to Ecclesiastes. He emphasizes the following about human fate:

– life is short;

– sufferings are countless;

– the grace of youth is followed by the bitterness of adult life;

– there is a degree of impurity in humans, namely, something mysterious which ruins everything they undertake;

– when looking at life, they would like to live forever, which is not granted to them.

While Ecclesiastes accepts the universal law, Job dreams of a God who might talk with him and forget, for a time, his superiority (vv. 15-17).

Here we see one of the results of the teaching that God gave his people for centuries. As the Israelites understood better the alliance that linked them with God, they became more human. Whereas their ancestors like Jacob or Moses were resigned to their mortal destiny, they aspired for something better.

13. In verses 13-17, Job mentions the place of the dead, or Sheol, or netherworld, where the Jews thought that, after death, they would have some semblance of life, but would be more like prisoners far from the Lord than like human beings who are alive and praise God (see Is 38:18-19). When someone has been called and loved by God he can no longer accept that he will disappear forever. And if God were to let him survive in a place not close to God, he would always long to reach God: I would wait for my release. You would call and I would answer (vv. 14-15).

In Chapters 15–18 everyone proceeds without listening to the other: Job expresses his despair and his friends repeat their conviction that misfortunes are for the wicked.

16.1 Notice the passage 16:8–17:7, which recalls Isaiah 53 and also the psalms evoking images of the Passion of Christ. When human beings are suffering, they share in the Passion of Christ, whether they know it or not; the confrontation of sin with the justice of God continues in them. God seems merciless in pursuing his creatures, in completely humiliating them, but, in fact, he is removing the roots of our pride.

17:8-10 must be seen as Job’s ironic answer to his friends, “You say that in seeing the wicked’s misfortune, the just praise God’s justice, well then, in seeing me so humiliated, rejoice and say: well done!”

19.13 This poem in verses 13-22 deals with the destiny of the elderly and the sick who feel useless, the condition of a fallen man or woman, rejected by society and an object of repulsion for the relatives who can do nothing to help.

Here, halfway through the book, Job again strongly expresses his faith: I know that my Redeemer lives… and in my flesh, I shall see God (vv. 25-26).

The very justice of God demands that he speak after all the speakers. God often waits for his servants to die to justify them, but in the end, he will come as Redeemer or Liberator: all will see and hear (Wis 5). Such was the hope of the oppressed just of whom Scripture speaks, and of Jesus himself.

In fact, Job himself is not an oppressed person waiting to be liberated. What is more important for him is not to prevail in reasoning with his adversaries, but to see God and hear him (v. 27).

21.7 Here, too, we recognize Jeremiah’s complaint in 12:1 and the questions raised in Psalm 73. In the Old Testament, the just are scandalized by the prosperity of the wicked, because it seems to deny God’s justice. Is it true, as we sometimes hear, that death is the ultimate justice?

22.3 Eliphaz’ speeches are repetitious: if Job suffers, it is because he has sinned. He must have oppressed his neighbor in spite of his reputation for integrity. Yet, note the list of sins that Job might have committed: it is always a matter of oppressing the weak or failing to assist them. Jesus will say nothing new when, in Matthew 25:40 he condemns to eternal punishment those who failed to provide bread and water to those in need.

The commentary on verses 29-30 can be found in Isaiah 2:6-22.

23.1 Job comes back to what he had already said: something is tormenting the religious people: to know that God is always looking at us and yet never be able to find him. This was commented for Chapter 7: Job personifies those who do not know Christ and have not felt “how good the Lord is towards those who serve him with love.” The same rebellion is found in many atheists today: they reject the idea of a God who watches them only to punish their faults.

24.1 A terrible accusation against God who keeps silent when the oppressed are before him. Few prophets expressed the horror of human evil more forcefully.

The poor go into hiding (v. 4). It is a fact that the media has made us more aware of universal misery and, doubtless, we see there a result of the Gospel. It is a fact that this trend has affected also other religions, which have opened up in recent years. Every country hides its poor and the rich are separated so that they rarely meet the poor, and consequently ignore them. That would be nothing if God did not also appear to forget the poor (and accept that his Church so easily forgets to bring them the Gospel).

14. This paragraph seems to be out of place here. The God of light allows the presence of dark areas on earth, where the children of darkness are at work.

Paragraph 24:18-23 would be better located after 27:23.

25.1 Bildad offers a new presentation of the splendor of the world. The people of that time still had very primitive ideas about the origin of the world. They accepted the legends of neighboring people, the Canaanites and the Chaldeans, who presented the universe as organized by the gods after they had destroyed the monsters of chaos. For centuries, the Jews kept these images; they were satisfied to remove from the legends the references to pagan gods and spoke of a first victory of the Lord at the beginning of the world. See also Isaiah 51:9.

The first chapter of Genesis was written after these poems. There the notion of God-Creator has purified: God created everything from the beginning and he did so by his word alone.

26.5 Paragraph 26:1-4 comes at the end of Chapter 26.

1. Job remarks ironically: What does all this have to do with the point of the discussion?

28.1 This poem marks an interval and a break after Job’s discussion with his friends.

Miners know how to look for hidden treasures inside hills: gold, silver and precious stones. But who will look for God’s wisdom? We find something similar in Baruch 3:15-30.

29.1 In Chapters 29–31 Job presents his defense and he assumes the role of the just one who is envied and slandered. As long as people are lucky they are esteemed, but if they run into misfortune, everyone suddenly looks at them differently. A secret instinct urges people to find a scapegoat in the midst of misfortune in the community. Inordinate respect returns and envy gives way to persecution.

Paradoxically, it is Job’s defense that shows the flaws in his integrity. I was wearing my honesty like a garment (v. 14). Job was delighted to do good. He was a “just” man, aware of being just and he gave thanks to God who made him good.

All this was nothing more than the justice and the merits of the Pharisee. Very respectful of a distant God, Job built up his life, his virtues and his good self-image alone. In the end, his perfection did not exist in God’s eyes because, without saying so, he made himself God’s rival.

30.16 The Book of Job teaches us how much we need the coming of the Son of God. On one hand, as long as God does not present himself openly, we cannot avoid doubting and resenting him. On the other hand, as long as someone feels he alone is responsible for his own perfection, he cannot feel as a child of God does nor come into the reign of grace.

31.1 Job looks at his behavior according to the law of God as it is presented in many pages of the Old Testament: a law of goodness and honesty centered on concern for one’s neighbor. In a world with a very modest standard of living, those lucky enough not to lack anything had the obligation of sharing with the less fortunate. The most serious sin was the lack of social solidarity.

In Job’s examination of conscience the sin of idolatry appears (vv. 26-28). This, however, plays a minor role.

32.1 The intervention of Elihu marks the beginning of a new part of the poems, inserted later and placed in Chapters 32–37.

Elihu’s discourses add little to the previous discussion. Elihu has nevertheless his point of view. It seems that for him the discussion so far has been rather theoretical. For one part he insists on the pedagogical aspect of the divine work: many situations, which seem unjust to us cease to be so provided we go beyond our first impressions. He also holds that even if God does not show himself, he knows how to communicate his counsels:

– You ask where your faults are, but perhaps God has warned you in a thousand ways and you have not taken it into account (33:13-18).

– You despair in your illness, but perhaps God wants to teach you: you did not invoke him when all was going well (35:8-13).

Elihu senses that there is something false in Job’s righteousness, but he does not know what it is. He looks for secret sins that Job might have committed. The fact is that what Job lacks is evangelical justice which is the humble love of God.

33.1 Elihu says to Job: you think you are innocent, but surely you have not paid attention to God’s warnings. Even though God cannot be reached by humans, he communicates through dreams, inspirations, encounters. God also corrects by way of the advice of other people who are his messengers, called here “angels,” “mediators.” We know that “angel” means messenger. The very one who complains about God fails to see, to listen, and to accept the messages God sends through the reprimands and advice given us by others who correct us in a loving way.

Elihu shows how trials are a lesson in humility for all (36:1-21).

36.22 This second poem on the greatness of God concludes Elihu’s speeches just as the poem of the miners concluded the discourses of Job’s three friends.

38.1 The Lord answers Job from within the storm clouds, as on Mount Sinai. He does not explain or justify; rather he does the questioning. He does not show off his own wisdom, but forces humans to admit that they do not know anything.

Here the author seems to be digressing somewhat from his theme. Carried away by his admiration, he forgets that, first of all, he intended to show us God exceeds our ability to understand and to judge. What do our protests and scandals mean: “if God existed...” They are mere childishness, idle words of those who have no idea of what the word “God” encompasses. If the entire universe is just the expression or the irradiation of divine Wisdom, who will dare tell God that his way is not reasonable?

40.1 In questioning Job, the Lord gets and gives us a few seconds of rest before beginning his second discourse in Chapters 40–41.

In Chapter 40, Behemoth or the hippopotamus appears, enormous, terrible and ugly, eating only plants. Leviathan, the crocodile whose skin resists arrows just like armor. What a pleasure to find in a few pages of the Scriptures a poetic expression of the beauty of creation. For centuries prophets and priests had to protect Israel from the seduction of nature. Everywhere around them, the wonders of creation gave rise to the worship of natural forces. When the Jews became firmer in their fidelity to God—the Creator of nature but not identified with it—it became possible to sing the praise of nature.

42.1 Here we have the conclusion of the long dialogues in this book.

Now my eyes have seen you (v. 5). Job’s questions about suffering and death have not been answered, but now we realize that it was not essential. God has responded. God has revealed himself and Job has begun to live as someone who has been miraculously freed from his loneliness. The words addressed by God to him seem reproachful, but Job feels better off with a thousand reproaches than with nothing.

What Job needed was not a revelation, since God gave him intelligence to investigate these human questions. What he lacked was to see God, and this is the great yearning of the entire Scriptures: “Show us your face and we will be saved” (Ps 80:8).

Verses 3a and 4 which read, “You asked: Who obscures divine plans with ignorance? You said: Listen and I will speak and question you, and you must answer,” were probably added.

7. In the last paragraph (42:10-17) we have the conclusion of the popular story of the holy man Job, begun in 1:1–2:13 (see Introduction). Since he preserved his trust, it was rewarded in the end by the just God.

On the contrary, in verses 7-9, we have a difficult merging between this submissive holy man Job and the other character who occupied most of the book, namely, the Job who argues with God. God prefers Job to his friends who consider themselves more religious because they cover up the scandals of existence and the obscurities of faith.

Job is the example of a Christian who courageously looks for an answer to today’s problems: my servant Job has spoken properly of me (cf. v. 7).