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Southern Adventist University

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature

Jan Haluska

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature: Introduction

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature- 1 (Ch. 1-4)

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature- 2 (Ch. 5-14)

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature- 3 (Ch. 19, 21, 27, and 28)

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature- 4 (Ch. 31-42)

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature- 5 (Overview)

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature- 6 (Overview 2)

We will begin at where we left off, Job 6 and 15, my brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook and Then 21 for now you are nothing You see my casting down and are afraid and I talked about that.

You think you're helping but you're betraying me.

You overwhelm the fatherless and you dig a pit for your friend.

He feels that his father God has abandoned him.

Ok, so Job continues trying to help them understand what he's going through.

Here I am, I'm going to be, my days are going to be short.

My flesh is clothed with worms and clouds of dust.

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.

The slave is the 1 who can't talk He's not that I will complain in the bitterness of my soul and Then he says starts on 12 into a fairly controversial passage.

Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me?

When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint, then thou scar'st me with dreams, and terrifies me through visions.

1 of the reasons I have you look at this in your own Bible and not in the Norton Anthology is that at this point there's a footnote in the Norton anthology which says Job now speaking to God claims that God is setting a watch over him.

If there were no such footnote, how would you know?

Where is it in the text that says Moreover Job spake to God and said There isn't any He's clearly talking to his friends in chapter 6 and it looks as though he's continuing to talk to his friends in chapter 7 and then suddenly 12 seems to many commentators to be a turn he's speaking to God but there's no textual evidence.

Whom else could he be talking to when he says, Am I a sea or a whale that thou set us to watch over me?

They've been sitting there for 7 days looking at him And that kind of like setting a watch over Now they've been they've done a good thing But now he's saying and what my bed shall comfort me in my couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me with dreams." If he's not talking to God whom could he be talking to?

So it's entirely possible in the absence of Any transition that says now Job is talking to the Lord.

It's not here But he just continues talking to his friends and he says you're scaring me with dreams aliphaz and even watching me Let me alone and then he says in 17 something that works very well if he's talking to his friends.

What is man that thou shouldest magnify him, and that thou should set thy heart upon him, that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment.

How long will thou not depart from me nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

Yes, you could read this as talking to God, but does it apply to the friends too?

Visit him every morning, try him every...

I have sinned, he says that, perhaps sarcastically if he's talking to his friends.

The other possibility is observer of men The Hebrew is a little unclear here.

Though observer of men Why has thou set me as a mark against thee, so I am a burden to myself?

They are telling him that he has a sin that can't name and he keeps saying Job wants to talk to God.

In other words, his friends are standing in place of God.

He wants a clear line of sight between himself and God and have a face-to-face conversation with his Lord.

And they are jumping into the middle of that and saying, wait a minute, we'll tell you what's going on because we're wise people.

They're stepping into the middle between him and God.

Therefore, they are taking the place of God.

And now in this reading, Job gets sarcastic.

Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?

If you are going to act like God, then pardon me, which is his job.

If you're my friends and you're going to pretend to be God, then be God and pardon me.

If you're going to stand in the place of God, then act like God.

And this is why he says, what is man that thou magnify him?

They are elevating themselves to the status of God, magnifying themselves.

What they should be doing is keeping their mouths shut and staying humble in the face of this awful stuff that's going on with Job.

Because there is no textual evidence that he's talking to God, it is entirely possible, and I think likely, that he's talking to his friends and all of this.

My question is, in my version, and I don't have a KJV, the vow is always capitalized, which would lend you to think.

Well, no, but the King James does a different thing.

But they are operating on that same theory.

Series

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature

The Book of Job as Sacred Literature- 4 (Ch. 31-42)

Transcript

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