Job 20, Zophar: Axiom of Retribution

Now that Job has responded to Bildad, the third companion, Zophar, taks a shot at Job.

Job 20:1-3, You offend me!

Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

"My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer 

because I am greatly disturbed.

I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, 

and my understanding inspires me to reply.

Poor Zophar is offended. Job has rebuked him and Zophar takes umbrage in a chaismic stanza:

    A: my thoughts make me anwer

        B: I am disturbed

        B: I am dishonored

    A: my thoughts make me reply

Job 20:4-11, Evil lasts only briefly

"Surely you know how it has been from of old, 

ever since man was placed on the earth,

that the mirth of the wicked is brief, 

the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

Though his pride reaches to the heavens 

and his head touches the clouds,

he will perish forever, like his own dung; 

those who have seen him will say, `Where is he?'

Like a dream he flies away, 

no more to be found, 

banished like a vision of the night.

The eye that saw him will not see him again; 

his place will look on him no more.

His children must make amends to the poor; 

his own hands must give back his wealth.

The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.

The joy of evil people is only short and temporary, says Zophar. This is the oldest wisdom, back to the creation of mankind. (The older the knowledge, the wiser, one assumes.) Even if the godless reach, for a moment, to the clouds, they will fall and be forgotten, with their children given back their wealth.  (I am reminded of the Chronicler's comment on the reign of Judean king Jehoram, "He passed away, to no one's regret", 2 Chronicles 21:20.)

Zophar argues for a divine axiom of retribution: evil people are punished and (presumably) good people are rewarded. 

Job 20:12-19, Sour stomach

"Though evil is sweet in his mouth 

and he hides it under his tongue,

though he cannot bear to let it go 

and keeps it in his mouth,

yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;

 it will become the venom of serpents within him.

He will spit out the riches he swallowed; 

God will make his stomach vomit them up.

He will suck the poison of serpents;

 the fangs of an adder will kill him.

He will not enjoy the streams, 

the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; 

he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; 

he has seized houses he did not build.

The joy of evil is so very short, argues Zophar. The wicked man is forced to vomit the evil he eats and spit out the riches he swallows. Beautiful streams of honey and cream he cannot enjoy; if he oppresses the poor he does not get to build on the houses he seizes. No one should want to be evil. 

(This is far too simplistic.  If evil were so quickly punished, it would not exist. If lies were not rewarded, no one would lie.)

Job 20: 20-25a, Pulling an arrow from his back

"Surely he will have no respite from his craving; 

he cannot save himself by his treasure.

Nothing is left for him to devour; 

his prosperity will not endure.

In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; 

the full force of misery will come upon him.

When he has filled his belly, 

God will vent his burning anger against him 

and rain down his blows upon him.

Though he flees from an iron weapon, 

a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.

He pulls it out of his back, 

the gleaming point out of his liver.

Zophar lists all the calamities that eventually come upon the wicked. If their own actions don't lead to misery, God will attack them, "raining down blows upon him." The wicked man will have to pull an arrow out of his own back, an arrow through his liver! Zophar essentially repeats Job's own complaints of Job 16:13-14, of God attacking him.

Job 20:25b-29, Terrors and cravings

Terrors will come over him;

total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. 

A fire unfanned will consume him 

and devour what is left in his tent.

The heavens will expose his guilt; 

the earth will rise up against him.

A flood will carry off his house, 

rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.

Such is the fate God allots the wicked, 

the heritage appointed for them by God."

As Job has described his terrors, so Zophar paints the terrors that come over the evil man. If Job wants a trial before God (says Hartley), Zophar says that the heavens and the earth will rise up and witness against him.  (The concept of the earth as a witness arises, points out Hartley, in Micah 6:1-2.)

Zophar believe his axiom of retribution is iron clad.  Evil is punished! Conversely, goodness is rewarded, so Job must have been evil. One message of the book of Job is that arguments like Zophars', so common among the righteous, are so wrong!

Job 19, Painfully Waiting for a Redeemer

Again and again, Job's friends argue that righteousness leads to awards and prosperity and that corruption leads to pain and evil. Thus, they say, Job suffers because he is being punished for his evil.

Job 19:1-6, Why do you attack me

Then Job replied:

"How long will you torment me

 and crush me with words?

Ten times now you have reproached me; 

shamelessly you attack me.

If it is true that I have gone astray, 

my error remains my concern alone.

If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me 

and use my humiliation against me,

then know that God has wronged me 

and drawn his net around me.

Job's defense begins with the Hebrew word an, translated here "How long?" It is the same word with which Bildad began his two speeches. (See Job 8:2 and Job 18:2.) Job echoes Bildad's challenge with a challenge of his own.

Job is being attacked by his "friends" because,  they say, he is sinful and that he knows that he is.  Job's defense, essentially, is that if he is indeed sinful, he is not aware of it, and so the error is really his alone. They are "exalting" themselves over him by making these simplistic accusations.

Job 19:7-12, Blocked

"Though I cry, `I've been wronged!' 

I get no response; 

though I call for help, 

there is no justice.

He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;

 he has shrouded my paths in darkness.

He has stripped me of my honor 

and removed the crown from my head.

He tears me down on every side till I am gone; 

he uproots my hope like a tree.

His anger burns against me;

 he counts me among his enemies.

His troops advance in force; 

they build a siege ramp against me 

and encamp around my tent.

God has blocked Job at every turn, says Job. And he, Job, has no solution.

As Hartley points out, Job's complaint in verse 8, that God has hedged him in so that he is trapped echoes the complaint of The Accuser (in Job 1:10) that God had hedged Job in so that nothing bad could happen to him. 

Compare verse 9, "He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown..." with Psalm 8:5, where mankind is crowned with glory and honor.

In Job 14:7, Job argues that at least trees get to send up new shoots and grow again; here in verse 10 Job goes further, saying that if his hope is like a tree then it has been completely uprooted.

Job 19: 13-20, Offensive to all

"He has alienated my brothers from me; 

my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

My kinsmen have gone away; 

my friends have forgotten me.

My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger;

 they look upon me as an alien.

I summon my servant, but he does not answer, 

though I beg him with my own mouth.

My breath is offensive to my wife;

 I am loathsome to my own brothers.

Even the little boys scorn me; 

when I appear, they ridicule me.

All my intimate friends detest me; 

those I love have turned against me.

I am nothing but skin and bones; 

I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

At every turn, Job is ignored, estranged, viewed as offensive.  No one supports him! (What a painful -- and very depressing -- place to be!) 

There are echoes here of David's despair in Psalm 88.

Job 19:21-22, Pity please

"Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, 

for the hand of God has struck me.

Why do you pursue me as God does? 

Will you never get enough of my flesh?

And so, Job begs, please, friends, at least you should have pity on me?

Job 19:23-24, Recorded

"Oh, that my words were recorded, 

that they were written on a scroll,

that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, 

or engraved in rock forever!

Unaware of the dialogue in Heaven, Job wishes that his complaint, his grievance, would be recorded, would be made public. Since papyrus or leather decays, those in the ancient Near East carved words into stone if they wanted them to be permanent. (We have such stele from the ancient Near East.) Job wants something like that to record his complaint.

Job 19:25-27, Redeemer

I know that my Redeemer lives, 

and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed, 

yet in my flesh I will see God;

I myself will see him with my own eyes--

I, and not another. 

How my heart yearns within me!

Suddenly, without warning, we have a surprising and very strong statement. Job expects to see his living Redeemer, even after his (tortuous) skin has been destroyed. The Hebrew word for "redeemer" is gaal (or go'el); Naomi and Ruth sought a "redeemer" in Bethlehem (eg. Ruth 4:1.) This word, says Hartley, is deeply rooted in Hebrew theology. The author of Job could have used other words (says Hartley) but chose this one because of its association with YHWH. (See, for example, Isaiah 43:1-7.) Apparently Job claims that God will redeem him from God's attacks!

In his argument, Job expects to eventually see this redeemer with his own eyes, even after his flesh is destroyed.  There is little in the Old Testament that speaks to a Jewish belief in a later resurrection of the body; this verse probably comes closest to making that claim.

Job 19:28-29, Be careful!

"If you say, `How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,'

you should fear the sword yourselves; 

for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, 

and then you will know that there is judgment."

"Be careful!" Job warns, "Your accusations may rebound to you!"

One Hundred Psalms

I have now carefully read and worked through 100 psalms, blogging on each individually. (72 of those blogs have been published in the blog; the remainder will be published this summer.) I continue to be amazed with the wide diversity of these songs, varying of ecstatic praise and joy to anger, despair and hopelessness.

Psalm 88 is a cry of despair. The only hint of any type of encouragement or hope is simply that the long rant of hopelessness is addressed to YHWH.  Even at the final verse is a statement of grief. In Psalm 84 a lonely traveler is homesick for Jerusalem and the temple. The singer, possibly a refugee in Babylon, imagines a sparrow (verse 3), flittering among the rafters of the temple, building a nest, building a home in the temple and he deeply wishes he could be back there, building his own nest. If the refugee is a prisoner traveling towards Babylon, history tells us that he will never see Jerusalem again and that the temple has been torn down. Indeed, in Psalm 79, a psalmist walks among the rubble and bodies left at the temple destruction. On the other hand, Psalms 93, 95-100, form a seven-set of worship hymns, joyously calling people to sing (and dance?) in worship of YHWH.

Job 18, Bildad: The Consequences of Evil

Job's claims of innocence insult Bildad. So Bildad takes another shot at Job.

Job 18:1-4, Be sensible! says a "friend"

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

"When will you end these speeches? 

Be sensible, and then we can talk.

Why are we regarded as cattle 

and considered stupid in your sight?

You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, 

is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? 

Or must the rocks be moved from their place?

Bildad is insulted. "Do you think we are as dumb as cattle?" he asks. Bildad's complaint echoes Job's earlier complaint that the "wisdom" his friends provide is obvious and simplistic. Bildad argues that Job's attempts to justify himself are equivalent to asking that the earth be changed or rocks moves from their place (as in an earthquake.) The natural order (suggests Bildad) will not be changed by Job's outrageous claims.

Job 18:5-13, Wicked snuffed out

"The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out; 

the flame of his fire stops burning.

The light in his tent becomes dark; 

the lamp beside him goes out.

The vigor of his step is weakened; 

his own schemes throw him down.

His feet thrust him into a net

 and he wanders into its mesh.

A trap seizes him by the heel; 

a snare holds him fast.

A noose is hidden for him on the ground; 

a trap lies in his path.

Terrors startle him on every side 

and dog his every step.

Calamity is hungry for him; 

disaster is ready for him when he falls.

It eats away parts of his skin; 

death's firstborn devours his limbs.

The wicked are destroyed at every step, defeated, trapped, devoured, eaten. Job, who is suffering, needs to be reminded of the suffering of the wicked. At every turn, Job's friends are almost correct. Proverbs 13:9 agrees with verse 5 of Bildad's argument. How can we criticize Bildad for quoting a proverb?

In verse 11, Job says that "terrors startle [the evil man] on every side." Hartley points out that this echoes Job's complaint in Job 3:25-26. In response to the terrors Job expresses, his "friend" Bildad says that, Yes, the evil man has terrors.

Snares and traps are described in six ways in verses 8-10, in three verses of parallel descriptions of various traps. The Hebrew words translated "net", "mesh", "trap", "snare", "noose" are all distinct: sebakah, resheth, tsammim, pach, malkodeth, chebel, displaying a colorful variety of ways an animal (or a man) could be brought down. The concept of the traps being set out is echoed in other places: David begs for protection from the snares of the wicked in Psalm 140:4-5. 

Job 18:14-21, Evil torn away

He is torn from the security of his tent 

and marched off to the king of terrors.

Fire resides in his tent; 

burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling.

His roots dry up below 

and his branches wither above.

The memory of him perishes from the earth; 

he has no name in the land.

He is driven from light into darkness 

and is banished from the world.

He has no offspring or descendants among his people, 

no survivor where once he lived.

Men of the west are appalled at his fate; 

men of the east are seized with horror.

Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man; 

such is the place of one who knows not God."

The wicked do indeed suffer for their evil, insists Bildad. Men everywhere (whether in the east or the west) will be shocked by the fate of the evil man. His name will be removed from the earthly memory. Once again, we are close to a proverb (points out Hartley) for Proverbs 10:7 exalts the name of the good man but assures us that the name of the evil man will rot. Bildad and his friends are almost correct; their arguments have significant truth but no compassion.

Job 17, "You False Optimists!"

Attacked again and again by his friends, Job is broken and weary, but stubbornly insistent on his innocence. He has nothing else to cling to. He continues to defend himself against Eliphaz's most recent attack.

Job 17:1-2, Broken spirit

My spirit is broken, 

my days are cut short, 

the grave awaits me.

Surely mockers surround me; 

my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

The grave is seen as a place to get away from the angry mockers that surround him. (The mockers are there because a previously rich man, who was also righteous, has been brought so low. But the "friends" who have accompanied Job seem to be identifying with the mockers.)

Job 17:3, God is security

"Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. 

Who else will put up security for me?

Job seems to both lean on God and be devastated by God. Hartley argues that Job wants to appear in court before God, but needs a pledge, bail, to get out of this devastating place while he waits.

As Hartley points out, the cry for protection in verses 1-3 is echoed in other places in the Old Testament. It is David's plea in Psalm 119:121-124.

Job 17:4-5, Still, they will not triumph

You have closed their minds to understanding; 

therefore you will not let them triumph.

If a man denounces his friends for reward, 

the eyes of his children will fail.

The mockers have closed minds but will not triumph. The last verse seems to expect a certain corruption to reflect onto one's children; Job uses threats similar to those used by his companions, to warn them against their actions in denouncing him.

Job 17:6-9, A byword

"God has made me a byword to everyone, 

a man in whose face people spit.

My eyes have grown dim with grief; 

my whole frame is but a shadow.

Upright men are appalled at this; 

the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.

Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, 

and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

Job will hold on to righteousness even in despair. He laments that everyone around him acts as an enemy.

Job 17:10-12, False optimists

"But come on, all of you, try again! 

I will not find a wise man among you.

My days have passed, my plans are shattered, 

and so are the desires of my heart.

These men turn night into day; 

in the face of darkness they say, `Light is near.'

Job's friends are useless.  All of Job's plans, all of his joys and triumphs have been destroyed. (Anyone who has dealt with deep grief and sorrow understands that lament.)

Job's friends would claim light is nearby even in the darkness.  This is an accusation -- false optimism in the midst of pain is the charge here. (Thousands of years later, it would still be good for us to be aware of this accusation.)

Job 17:13-16, No hope in corruption

If the only home I hope for is the grave,

 if I spread out my bed in darkness,

 if I say to corruption, `You are my father,' 

and to the worm, `My mother' or `My sister,'

where then is my hope? 

Who can see any hope for me?

Will it go down to the gates of death?

Will we descend together into the dust?"

How can one who is corrupt have any hope? Job, in despair and desperation, looking towards the grave and darkness, sees nothing but righteousness that is worth clinging to. His faith here is one of desperation; he sees no other choices.