WEBVTT 00:00.750 --> 00:03.630 Professor Christine Hayes: When Nebuchadnezzar 00:03.633 --> 00:06.523 of Babylon burned the temple and destroyed Jerusalem, 00:06.516 --> 00:09.946 the initial reaction was one of overwhelming grief and sadness, 00:09.954 --> 00:12.514 and that's represented primarily in the Book of 00:12.505 --> 00:15.845 Lamentations. It's a very short book of 00:15.848 --> 00:20.898 dirges that laments the loss of Jerusalem as the death of a 00:20.901 --> 00:23.611 beloved person. And it's traditionally 00:23.613 --> 00:24.863 attributed to Jeremiah. 00:24.860 --> 00:26.820 The Bible itself doesn't make this claim; 00:26.820 --> 00:28.650 it's an old tradition. 00:28.650 --> 00:31.100 It may have arisen, however, because of all of the 00:31.100 --> 00:34.150 prophets, Jeremiah is the one who reveals the most to us about 00:34.150 --> 00:36.000 his personal suffering and grief, 00:36.000 --> 00:38.990 and because he was present as an eyewitness at the 00:38.994 --> 00:41.844 destruction. There's no real logical 00:41.838 --> 00:46.418 development of ideas in Lamentations primarily because 00:46.421 --> 00:50.141 it's structured by an artificial device. 00:50.140 --> 00:53.200 There are five chapters and four of the chapters are 00:53.200 --> 00:55.670 acrostic poems. This means that each verse, 00:55.668 --> 00:58.618 or sometimes a series of verses, begins with a letter of 00:58.618 --> 01:00.118 the alphabet in sequence. 01:00.119 --> 01:03.339 So in chapter 3 you have three verses per letter of the 01:03.335 --> 01:05.715 alphabet. But this kind of acrostic 01:05.724 --> 01:09.474 poetic formation gives the poem a kind of formal unity, 01:09.470 --> 01:13.980 at the same time that it has no logical unity or logical flow. 01:13.980 --> 01:17.520 And it's been pointed out that that form is particularly 01:17.521 --> 01:21.451 appropriate for an expression of grief that is too profound or 01:21.448 --> 01:23.958 too all encompassing to be logical. 01:23.959 --> 01:27.479 The Lamentations over Jerusalem resemble very much David's 01:27.484 --> 01:29.034 lamentations over Saul. 01:29.030 --> 01:32.310 The mourner spends time contrasting the former splendor 01:32.313 --> 01:35.053 of the beloved to his or her present state. 01:35.050 --> 01:38.430 And we have lots of Ancient Near Eastern prototypes for this 01:38.433 --> 01:40.563 kind of lamentation--lamentations over 01:40.555 --> 01:43.815 destroyed cities which are understood as the result of the 01:43.824 --> 01:46.294 deity's decision to abandon the city. 01:46.290 --> 01:50.390 In Lamentations we're given a very detailed picture of the 01:50.387 --> 01:54.267 great suffering that accompanied the final collapse. 01:54.270 --> 01:56.320 Lamentations 1:1: "Alas! 01:56.320 --> 01:58.920 Lonely sits the city Once great with people! 01:58.920 --> 02:01.980 She that was great among nations Is become like a widow; 02:01.980 --> 02:05.100 The princess among states Is become a thrall." 02:05.100 --> 02:07.650 Chapter 4: Alas! 02:07.650 --> 02:11.040 The gold is dulled, Debased the finest gold, 02:11.040 --> 02:14.230 The sacred gems are spilled a At every street corner. 02:14.230 --> 02:17.660 The precious children of Zion; Once valued as gold-- 02:17.659 --> 02:19.929 Alas, they are accounted as earthen pots, 02:19.930 --> 02:21.950 Work of a potter's hands! 02:21.950 --> 02:24.870 Even jackals offer the breast And suckle their young; 02:24.870 --> 02:26.700 But my poor people has turned cruel, 02:26.700 --> 02:28.370 Like ostriches of the desert. 02:28.370 --> 02:30.450 The tongue of the suckling cleaves 02:30.450 --> 02:31.920 To its palate for thirst. 02:31.920 --> 02:35.580 Little children beg for bread; None give them a morsel. 02:35.580 --> 02:38.800 Those who feasted on dainties Lie famished in the streets; 02:38.800 --> 02:43.110 Those who were reared in purple Have embraced refuse heaps. 02:43.110 --> 02:46.330 The guilt of my poor people Exceeded the iniquity of Sodom, 02:46.330 --> 02:48.360 Which was overthrown in a moment, 02:48.360 --> 02:49.690 Without a hand striking it. 02:49.690 --> 02:52.990 Her elect were purer then snow, Whiter then milk; 02:52.990 --> 02:54.590 Their limbs were ruddier then coral, 02:54.590 --> 02:56.430 Their bodies were like sapphire. 02:56.430 --> 02:59.350 Again, the description of the physical beauty of the beloved, 02:59.349 --> 03:01.609 Now their faces are blacker then soot, 03:01.610 --> 03:03.460 They are not recognized in the streets; 03:03.460 --> 03:05.350 Their skin has shriveled on their bones, 03:05.350 --> 03:07.070 It has become dry as wood. 03:07.069 --> 03:09.349 Better off were the slain of the sword 03:09.350 --> 03:12.060 Than those slain by famine, Who pined away, 03:12.062 --> 03:13.482 [as though] wounded, 03:13.479 --> 03:15.349 For lack of the fruits of the field. 03:15.349 --> 03:17.799 With their own hands, tenderhearted women 03:17.800 --> 03:21.170 Have cooked their children; Such became their fare, 03:21.169 --> 03:24.179 In the disaster of my poor people. 03:24.180 --> 03:27.490 The poet here, though, does adopt the standard 03:27.487 --> 03:31.967 Deuteronomistic interpretation of events which infers sin from 03:31.971 --> 03:33.731 suffering, and therefore, 03:33.728 --> 03:36.478 harps on the sin and the uncleanness of Jerusalem that 03:36.484 --> 03:37.944 brought on this calamity. 03:37.940 --> 03:41.020 Their guilt exceeded the iniquity of Sodom in the passage 03:41.024 --> 03:43.394 we just read, and this is a strategy that of 03:43.392 --> 03:44.772 course justifies God. 03:44.770 --> 03:47.490 The poet singles out the corrupt priests, 03:47.487 --> 03:49.727 the corrupt prophets for blame. 03:49.729 --> 03:54.049 He attacks the popular ideology of the inviolability of Zion. 03:54.050 --> 03:57.620 Israel's many sins are what caused Yahweh to pour out his 03:57.618 --> 04:00.038 wrath and destroy Jerusalem utterly. 04:00.039 --> 04:02.349 The descriptions of Yahweh's wrath, anger, 04:02.345 --> 04:04.875 his consuming rage, these are some of the most 04:04.875 --> 04:08.075 powerful and most violent poetry in the Hebrew Bible. 04:08.080 --> 04:11.620 They tend to divert attention, in fact, from the people's 04:11.624 --> 04:14.604 guilt and focus attention on their suffering. 04:14.599 --> 04:17.739 Children crying for bread, children starving to death, 04:17.739 --> 04:19.279 women raped, men abused. 04:19.279 --> 04:21.929 In chapter 3, the poet switches into the 04:21.931 --> 04:26.011 first person so Jerusalem is speaking like one who is pursued 04:26.010 --> 04:28.800 and abused, beaten by an angry and violent 04:28.798 --> 04:30.848 master. Chapter 3: 04:30.850 --> 04:32.930 I am the man who has known affliction 04:32.930 --> 04:36.120 Under the rod of His wrath; Me he drove on and on 04:36.120 --> 04:39.290 In unrelieved darkness; On none but me He brings down 04:39.286 --> 04:41.536 His hand Again and again, without cease. 04:41.540 --> 04:43.930 He has worn away my flesh and skin; 04:43.930 --> 04:45.130 He has shattered my bones. 04:45.130 --> 04:48.340 All around me He has built Misery and hardship; 04:48.339 --> 04:50.029 He has made me dwell in darkness, 04:50.030 --> 04:51.470 Like those long dead. 04:51.470 --> 04:53.890 He has walled me in and I cannot break out; 04:53.889 --> 04:55.659 He has weighed me down with chains. 04:55.660 --> 04:58.970 And when I cry and plead, He shuts out my prayer; 04:58.970 --> 05:01.670 He has walled in my ways with hewn blocks, 05:01.670 --> 05:03.830 He has made my paths a maze. 05:03.830 --> 05:07.280 He is a lurking bear to me, A lion in hiding; 05:07.279 --> 05:10.249 He has forced me off my way and mangled me, 05:10.250 --> 05:14.110 He has left me numb. A remarkably violent passage. 05:14.110 --> 05:17.410 And in another remarkable passage, the poet describes God 05:17.413 --> 05:20.013 as refusing to hear the prayers of Israel. 05:20.010 --> 05:21.220 He no longer can forgive. 05:21.220 --> 05:22.300 He simply has to punish. 05:22.300 --> 05:26.390 This is in chapter 3 as well, verses 42 to 45. 05:26.389 --> 05:28.329 We have transgressed and rebelled, 05:28.330 --> 05:30.510 And You have not forgiven. 05:30.509 --> 05:32.869 You have clothed Yourself in anger and pursued us, 05:32.870 --> 05:34.230 You have slain without pity. 05:34.230 --> 05:36.200 You have screened Yourself off with a cloud 05:36.200 --> 05:38.270 That no prayer may pass through. 05:38.269 --> 05:40.279 You have made us filth and refuse 05:40.279 --> 05:42.239 In the midst of the peoples. 05:42.240 --> 05:45.200 So God is simply refusing to even hear Israel's prayer. 05:45.199 --> 05:47.849 This is an emphasis not so much on Israel's guilt, 05:47.848 --> 05:50.118 but on Israel's tremendous suffering, God's 05:50.118 --> 05:54.408 hardheartedness. The poem ends with a plea of 05:54.412 --> 05:57.512 reconciliation in 5:19-22. 05:57.509 --> 05:59.729 But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever, 05:59.730 --> 06:02.020 Your throne endures through the ages. 06:02.019 --> 06:04.329 Why have you forgotten us utterly, 06:04.330 --> 06:06.120 Forsaken us for all time? 06:06.120 --> 06:08.010 Take us back, O Lord, to Yourself, 06:08.010 --> 06:11.180 And let us come back; Renew our days as of old! 06:11.180 --> 06:14.550 For truly, You have rejected us, Bitterly raged against us. 06:14.550 --> 06:16.590 Take us back, O Lord, to Yourself, 06:16.590 --> 06:20.390 And let us come back; Renew our days as of old! 06:20.389 --> 06:23.489 Lamentations represents one response to the fall of 06:23.486 --> 06:26.826 Jerusalem. It's an overwhelming sense of 06:26.833 --> 06:31.233 loss, grief, misery, a sense of shock too at God's 06:31.232 --> 06:34.032 treatment. And also a longing to return, 06:34.033 --> 06:36.403 a longing for renewal and reconciliation. 06:36.399 --> 06:40.539 The 200 years following the destruction would prove to be a 06:40.539 --> 06:43.679 time, a very critical time, of transition. 06:43.680 --> 06:47.010 And Israelite literature in this period reflects the 06:47.013 --> 06:50.673 Israelites' struggle with the philosophical and religious 06:50.673 --> 06:52.833 challenge of the destruction. 06:52.829 --> 06:55.129 How could the disastrous events be explained? 06:55.129 --> 06:58.699 We've already seen the response of the Deuteronomistic School. 06:58.699 --> 07:01.189 Israel was collectively punished for idolatry. 07:01.189 --> 07:04.989 We've seen that history simply reflects justice on a national 07:04.990 --> 07:07.460 and international level in this view. 07:07.459 --> 07:09.149 We've also seen the response of Ezekiel. 07:09.149 --> 07:13.329 He promoted the idea of a continued relationship with God 07:13.325 --> 07:16.975 in exile and was awaiting a fantastic restoration, 07:16.978 --> 07:19.288 a redesign of human nature. 07:19.290 --> 07:22.590 We've seen the response of Second Isaiah which emphasizes 07:22.589 --> 07:25.419 the universal significance of Israel's suffering, 07:25.417 --> 07:27.477 a universal mission for Israel. 07:27.480 --> 07:30.930 For both Ezekiel and the author of Second Isaiah, 07:30.928 --> 07:35.308 Israel's suffering is serving a purpose in the divine plan. 07:35.310 --> 07:38.410 It's necessary. Israel needs purification and 07:38.412 --> 07:42.162 redemption and that will prepare her for a new role in world 07:42.161 --> 07:44.191 history. But there are other responses 07:44.189 --> 07:47.119 as well and they're found in the material that's collected in the 07:47.123 --> 07:48.823 third section of the Hebrew Bible. 07:48.819 --> 07:51.279 That's the section referred to really as Ketuvim, 07:51.277 --> 07:53.777 which in Hebrew simply means writings, written things. 07:53.779 --> 07:56.999 It's sort of a miscellany, a catch-all phrase. 07:57.000 --> 07:59.190 And the final portion of the course is going to be devoted 07:59.192 --> 08:00.272 now to that third section. 08:00.269 --> 08:03.539 So Torah, Neviim or prophets, and Ketuvim, 08:03.538 --> 08:06.068 or writings. Next time I'm going to discuss 08:06.066 --> 08:09.516 the problem of dating many of the works that are in this third 08:09.516 --> 08:10.926 section, the Writings. 08:10.930 --> 08:14.630 For now it'll suffice to say that while some of the books in 08:14.634 --> 08:18.594 this third section of the Bible may have pre-dated the exile, 08:18.589 --> 08:22.229 they became canonical, they became authoritative for 08:22.230 --> 08:26.800 the community in the post-exilic period and therefore served as a 08:26.799 --> 08:30.939 prism through which to view and come to grips with Israel's 08:30.940 --> 08:33.790 history. So we're going to turn today, 08:33.791 --> 08:36.541 first of all, to an examination of the three 08:36.536 --> 08:39.406 books that represent the Wisdom tradition, 08:39.409 --> 08:41.609 what's referred to as the Wisdom literature, 08:41.611 --> 08:43.661 or Wisdom tradition in ancient Israel. 08:43.659 --> 08:46.879 The Wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible are Proverbs, 08:46.875 --> 08:48.445 Job, and Ecclesiastes. 08:48.450 --> 08:53.560 Israelite Wisdom literature belongs to a much wider and 08:53.561 --> 08:59.241 broad Wisdom legacy or tradition in the Ancient Near East. 08:59.240 --> 09:03.200 There's very little in biblical Wisdom literature apart from its 09:03.195 --> 09:06.895 monotheism that lacks a parallel in the Wisdom literature of 09:06.900 --> 09:08.470 Egypt or Mesopotamia. 09:08.470 --> 09:12.310 So Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom literature is literature that's 09:12.311 --> 09:15.461 characterized by a praise of human intelligence, 09:15.460 --> 09:18.390 applied to understanding the ways of the world, 09:18.389 --> 09:19.789 the ways of society. 09:19.789 --> 09:23.929 It tends to contain traditional advice--advice that's been found 09:23.928 --> 09:25.438 to be tried and true. 09:25.440 --> 09:28.460 It tends to be very individually oriented, 09:28.460 --> 09:32.220 but at the same time, quite universal and humanistic 09:32.216 --> 09:34.496 in its orientation as well. 09:34.500 --> 09:37.700 In keeping with this style, Israelite Wisdom literature 09:37.697 --> 09:41.127 doesn't really speak to the particular historical condition 09:41.131 --> 09:44.321 of Israel. It speaks to the general human 09:44.316 --> 09:47.016 condition. It makes no claim to having 09:47.021 --> 09:50.711 been divinely revealed--no special claim to having been 09:50.705 --> 09:53.225 conveyed by a prophet or by Moses. 09:53.230 --> 09:55.950 It's simply observational wisdom; 09:55.950 --> 10:01.590 advice and counsel that can be weighed or confirmed or disputed 10:01.585 --> 10:04.375 by experience. Again, if you were simply to 10:04.384 --> 10:07.174 open up the Book of Proverbs and read something in there, 10:07.169 --> 10:10.109 unless it had the word Yahweh, you wouldn't know that it 10:10.106 --> 10:12.826 didn't come from some Egyptian Wisdom literature, 10:12.830 --> 10:15.060 or Mesopotamian Wisdom literature. 10:15.059 --> 10:17.489 There are various types of Wisdom material. 10:17.490 --> 10:21.280 Scholars have classified the Wisdom material into three main 10:21.284 --> 10:23.314 categories. The Hebrew word for 10:23.310 --> 10:26.820 wisdom--which is the word hokhmah--literally means 10:26.818 --> 10:30.698 skill and probably refers to the skill of living well or living 10:30.702 --> 10:33.022 properly. The three types of Wisdom 10:33.021 --> 10:36.711 literature that we find are what we could call (1) clan or family 10:36.713 --> 10:39.203 wisdom. These materials tend to be 10:39.201 --> 10:42.071 common sense aphorisms and observations, 10:42.067 --> 10:46.107 the kinds of things that are common to all cultures. 10:46.110 --> 10:48.630 They're scattered around the Hebrew Bible, 10:48.632 --> 10:52.142 but most of them are contained in the Book of Proverbs. 10:52.139 --> 10:53.999 So, for example, Proverbs 15:17, 10:54.000 --> 10:57.360 "Better a meal of vegetables where there is love / Then a 10:57.360 --> 10:59.580 fattened ox where there is hate." 10:59.580 --> 11:02.610 It's the kind of thing you can imagine your grandmother saying. 11:02.610 --> 11:05.150 Chapter 20:14: "'Bad, bad,' says the buyer, 11:05.152 --> 11:08.302 / But having moved off, he congratulates himself." 11:08.299 --> 11:12.109 Or 26:14: "The door turns on its hinge, / And the lazy man on 11:12.107 --> 11:15.467 his bed," and neither of them really gets anywhere. 11:15.470 --> 11:20.260 25:25: "Like cold water to a parched throat / Is good news 11:20.258 --> 11:22.188 from a distant land." 11:22.190 --> 11:25.490 Many of the Proverbs we classify as clan or family 11:25.488 --> 11:26.968 wisdom are parental. 11:26.970 --> 11:29.860 They tend to sound as if they're being said to a son, 11:29.855 --> 11:32.015 not so much a daughter, but to a son. 11:32.019 --> 11:35.489 The second category of Wisdom literature is what we call court 11:35.487 --> 11:38.157 wisdom, and we have a lot of this from Egypt. 11:38.159 --> 11:40.649 A great deal of court wisdom came from Egypt to serve the 11:40.647 --> 11:41.577 needs of the court. 11:41.580 --> 11:45.150 It tends to be bureaucratic advice, administrative advice, 11:45.146 --> 11:48.146 career advice, instruction on manners or tact, 11:48.149 --> 11:50.619 how to be diplomatic, how to live well and 11:50.615 --> 11:52.295 prosper--practical wisdom. 11:52.299 --> 11:54.159 So, for example, Proverbs 24:27, 11:54.159 --> 11:57.819 "Put your external affairs in order, / Get ready what you have 11:57.820 --> 12:00.700 in the field, / Then build yourself a home." 12:00.700 --> 12:04.580 Or 21:23: "He who guards his mouth and tongue / Guards 12:04.582 --> 12:08.952 himself from trouble," tact; 11:14, "For want of strategy an 12:08.947 --> 12:13.137 army falls, / But victory comes with much planning," or 12:1, 12:13.143 --> 12:16.223 "He who loves discipline loves knowledge; 12:16.220 --> 12:19.030 / He who spurns reproof is a brutish man." 12:19.029 --> 12:22.709 Then the third category of Wisdom literature is what we 12:22.706 --> 12:26.376 might call more free-wheeling existential reflection or 12:26.383 --> 12:30.333 probing--a reflective probing into the critical problems of 12:30.332 --> 12:33.532 human existence, and I'm going to talk about 12:33.532 --> 12:37.002 that in much more detail as we get to the Book of Job. 12:37.000 --> 12:39.850 Now as I mentioned before, all of these types of Wisdom 12:39.853 --> 12:42.023 literature tend to be very universalistic, 12:42.020 --> 12:43.500 humanistic, ahistorical. 12:43.500 --> 12:46.610 There's nothing particularly Israelite about them. 12:46.610 --> 12:49.280 There's no mention of the exodus, there's no mention of 12:49.284 --> 12:52.214 Sinai or Moses or covenant or any of the early narratives of 12:52.207 --> 12:54.327 the nation. And they are paralleled in 12:54.334 --> 12:57.534 great abundance in the writings of other Ancient Near Eastern 12:57.530 --> 13:00.080 cultures. Sometimes there's an attempt to 13:00.075 --> 13:03.205 connect wisdom specifically with belief in Yahweh. 13:03.210 --> 13:07.070 But biblical Wisdom like Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom 13:07.072 --> 13:11.692 generally grounds morality on non-specific notions of prudence 13:11.692 --> 13:15.482 and God-fearing in a sort of non-specific way, 13:15.480 --> 13:19.450 rather then on the historical covenant with Yahweh. 13:19.450 --> 13:23.960 So let's look at the Book of Proverbs in a little more 13:23.955 --> 13:26.595 detail. Proverbs is the classic book of 13:26.603 --> 13:29.053 Wisdom. It contains some material of 13:29.049 --> 13:32.259 great antiquity. Even though the book probably 13:32.262 --> 13:35.612 reached its final form only in post-exilic times, 13:35.610 --> 13:38.610 surely a great deal of it is much older. 13:38.610 --> 13:42.400 There are many affinities between Proverbs and Egyptian 13:42.396 --> 13:47.116 and Canaanite Wisdom literature, so that suggests that Israel 13:47.120 --> 13:51.800 assimilated Wisdom material from the wider environment. 13:51.799 --> 13:56.929 The chief aim of Proverbs seems to be the inculcation of wisdom 13:56.931 --> 14:01.401 as the means to social tranquility and a happy life. 14:01.399 --> 14:04.379 Young people should learn to master their impulses. 14:04.379 --> 14:07.549 They should lead productive and sensible lives. 14:07.549 --> 14:10.129 Many of the maxims are intended to educate sons, 14:10.134 --> 14:12.284 there's no mention of daughters here, 14:12.279 --> 14:16.369 and a good deal of the first nine chapters is formally 14:16.369 --> 14:19.069 pedagogical, clearly pedagogical, 14:19.070 --> 14:23.210 and can be compared quite productively with some Egyptian 14:23.213 --> 14:27.653 writings that we have from the third millennium--the Egyptian 14:27.652 --> 14:31.402 teaching of Amenemopet, or the Babylonian Counsels of 14:31.397 --> 14:34.127 Wisdom; tremendous parallels among 14:34.126 --> 14:37.106 these works. But these first nine chapters 14:37.105 --> 14:40.745 warn against the seductions of foreign women and they urge 14:40.751 --> 14:42.671 young men to pursue wisdom. 14:42.669 --> 14:46.259 And wisdom here is figured--almost hypostasized, 14:46.256 --> 14:49.986 an attribute or a characteristic that's almost put 14:49.994 --> 14:54.514 into a concrete human form, wisdom is figured as a virtuous 14:54.508 --> 14:57.278 woman who promises insight and counsel. 14:57.279 --> 15:00.689 This woman was created before all other created things. 15:00.690 --> 15:02.680 And wisdom again, figured as a woman, 15:02.682 --> 15:05.342 assisted Yahweh in the creation--in the ordering, 15:05.338 --> 15:07.938 I should say, the ordering of the universe. 15:07.940 --> 15:10.210 Wisdom was with God at that time. 15:10.210 --> 15:14.840 Proverbs values hard work and diligence, and warns against 15:14.837 --> 15:17.757 excessive sleep and sex, and wine. 15:17.759 --> 15:21.199 Proverbs recommends honesty in your business affairs and 15:21.202 --> 15:23.392 kindness, and loyalty, impartiality, 15:23.392 --> 15:26.712 sobriety, and humility, restraint, and sincerity. 15:26.710 --> 15:30.040 Wealth is very nice, but it's not to be desired at 15:30.038 --> 15:32.278 the cost of calmness and peace. 15:32.279 --> 15:35.799 The Wisdom sayings that appear in Proverbs are usually these 15:35.804 --> 15:38.974 short two-line sentences in which the second line runs 15:38.970 --> 15:41.240 parallel in some way to the first. 15:41.240 --> 15:43.690 Some scholars have classified the different kinds of 15:43.687 --> 15:46.757 parallelism you find in the book of Proverbs and I've written the 15:46.758 --> 15:48.148 three main forms up here. 15:48.149 --> 15:50.819 An example of synonymous parallelism, where the second 15:50.820 --> 15:53.890 line is essentially synonymous with the first--that's found in 15:53.893 --> 15:55.993 Proverbs 22:1. It's a classic feature of 15:55.993 --> 15:57.333 biblical poetry in general. 15:57.330 --> 15:59.140 We'll see it in the Psalms. 15:59.139 --> 16:02.069 For an example, "A good name is to be chosen 16:02.067 --> 16:04.787 rather then great riches / And favor," 16:04.789 --> 16:07.579 parallel to a good name, "is better then silver and 16:07.578 --> 16:09.528 gold," parallel to great riches . 16:09.529 --> 16:12.179 So the two lines are somewhat synonymous. 16:12.179 --> 16:16.539 In antithetic parallelism the two lines form a balanced pair 16:16.539 --> 16:19.199 of opposites, so in Proverbs 10:1, 16:19.200 --> 16:23.310 "A wise son makes a glad father / But a foolish son is a sorrow 16:23.312 --> 16:26.562 to his mother". When the second line seems to 16:26.560 --> 16:30.580 complete the thought of the first, it's called ascending 16:30.583 --> 16:34.403 parallelism. We find that in Proverbs 11:22, 16:34.403 --> 16:39.763 "Like a gold ring in the snout of a pig / Is a beautiful woman 16:39.762 --> 16:41.522 bereft of sense." 16:41.519 --> 16:45.799 Another feature of Proverbs is that wisdom itself is 16:45.797 --> 16:48.897 established as a religious concept. 16:48.899 --> 16:50.889 It seems to have some religious value. 16:50.889 --> 16:54.699 Proverbs tries to link wisdom with reverence for God and 16:54.695 --> 16:56.005 obedience to God. 16:56.009 --> 16:58.299 In Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lord" or 16:58.298 --> 17:01.758 reverence, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 17:01.759 --> 17:05.289 Fools despise wisdom and discipline," or chapter 3:5-8, 17:05.294 --> 17:09.164 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, / And do not rely on 17:09.157 --> 17:10.987 your own understanding." 17:10.990 --> 17:14.890 Wisdom guards one from evil, the wise person accepts the 17:14.888 --> 17:18.288 sufferings with which God is disciplining him. 17:18.289 --> 17:21.479 So in Proverbs 3:12, "For Yahweh reproves," or 17:21.476 --> 17:24.656 disciplines, "him whom he loves / As a father, 17:24.663 --> 17:27.003 the son in whom he delights". 17:27.000 --> 17:31.080 Keep that in mind as we turn to Job, because I think the most 17:31.082 --> 17:35.172 important thing about the Book of Proverbs is its almost smug 17:35.165 --> 17:39.445 certainty that the righteous and the wicked of the world receive 17:39.452 --> 17:41.972 what they deserve in this life. 17:41.970 --> 17:45.430 There's a complacency here, an optimism. 17:45.430 --> 17:48.670 God's just providence and a moral world order, 17:48.665 --> 17:52.975 are presuppositions that it just doesn't seem to question. 17:52.980 --> 17:56.170 The wise person's deeds are good and will bring him 17:56.169 --> 17:57.699 happiness and success. 17:57.700 --> 18:01.210 The foolish person's deeds are evil and they are going to lead 18:01.205 --> 18:02.465 to failure and ruin. 18:02.470 --> 18:06.220 The key idea is that a truly wise person knows that the world 18:06.223 --> 18:07.853 is essentially coherent. 18:07.850 --> 18:09.210 It's ethically ordered. 18:09.210 --> 18:12.560 There are clear laws of reward and punishment that exist in the 18:12.557 --> 18:15.147 world. Proverbs 26:27; 18:15.150 --> 18:18.910 "He who digs a pit will fall into it / and a stone will come 18:18.906 --> 18:21.386 back upon him who starts it rolling". 18:21.390 --> 18:24.440 Or 13:6: "Righteousness protects him whose way is 18:24.438 --> 18:27.638 blameless; Wickedness subverts the sinner." 18:27.640 --> 18:31.020 If the righteous suffer then they are being chastised or 18:31.019 --> 18:34.829 chastened by God just as a son is disciplined by his father. 18:34.829 --> 18:37.639 He shouldn't reject this reproof, he should welcome it. 18:37.640 --> 18:40.670 This insistence, on the basic justice of the 18:40.667 --> 18:45.027 world, and the power of wisdom or fear of the Lord to guarantee 18:45.032 --> 18:48.902 success and security was one strand of ancient Israelite 18:48.904 --> 18:51.444 thought. It reaches crystallization in 18:51.436 --> 18:52.606 the Book of Proverbs. 18:52.609 --> 18:56.579 It was available as a response to or an explanation of the 18:56.577 --> 18:59.637 catastrophes that had befallen the nation. 18:59.640 --> 19:03.150 We've seen it at work in the Deuteronomistic school, 19:03.149 --> 19:07.069 unwilling to relinquish the idea of a moral God in control 19:07.072 --> 19:10.992 of history and preferring to infer the nation's sinfulness 19:10.994 --> 19:13.614 from its suffering and calamity. 19:13.609 --> 19:17.789 Better to blame the sufferer Israel and so keep God and the 19:17.792 --> 19:21.112 system of divine retributive justice intact. 19:21.109 --> 19:24.689 But it's precisely this formulaic and conventional piety 19:24.694 --> 19:28.674 that is challenged by two other remarkable Wisdom books in the 19:28.670 --> 19:32.320 Bible: the Book of Job and the Book of Ecclesiastes. 19:32.319 --> 19:35.539 In Job we find the idea that suffering is not always 19:35.536 --> 19:37.546 punitive. It is not always a sign of 19:37.550 --> 19:40.680 wickedness. It's not always explicable. 19:40.680 --> 19:43.540 And this is the first of several subversions of 19:43.542 --> 19:47.462 fundamental biblical principles that we encounter in the Book of 19:47.462 --> 19:49.772 Job. The Book of Job--we really 19:49.774 --> 19:51.244 don't know its date. 19:51.240 --> 19:54.060 It's probably no earlier then the sixth century BCE, 19:54.055 --> 19:57.475 but scholars disagree and there are portions of it that seem to 19:57.479 --> 20:00.239 reflect a very old and very ancient tradition. 20:00.240 --> 20:03.570 It's one of the hardest books of the Bible for moderns to 20:03.568 --> 20:07.248 read, and I think that's because its conclusions--to the degree 20:07.253 --> 20:10.463 that we can agree on what the conclusions might be--its 20:10.463 --> 20:13.913 conclusions seem to fly in the face of some basic religious 20:13.911 --> 20:16.671 convictions. You have to allow yourself, 20:16.673 --> 20:19.183 I think, to be surprised, to open your mind, 20:19.180 --> 20:22.970 to allow yourself to take Job's charges against God seriously. 20:22.970 --> 20:27.430 After all, the narrator makes it clear that God does take them 20:27.432 --> 20:30.122 seriously. God nowhere denies Job's 20:30.117 --> 20:33.877 charges and, in fact, at one point the narrator has 20:33.883 --> 20:36.673 God say that Job has spoken truly. 20:36.670 --> 20:40.490 So no matter how uncomfortable Job may make you feel, 20:40.488 --> 20:44.598 you need to understand his claims and not condemn him. 20:44.599 --> 20:48.349 Job is going to attack the optimistic conventional piety 20:48.354 --> 20:51.294 that is typified in the Book of Proverbs. 20:51.289 --> 20:54.259 He's going to challenge the assumption that there is a moral 20:54.256 --> 20:56.816 world order. The issues that are raised in 20:56.817 --> 21:00.147 this book are twofold: first, why God permits blatant 21:00.149 --> 21:03.609 injustice and undeserved suffering and evil to exist in 21:03.608 --> 21:05.898 the world, and second of all, 21:05.898 --> 21:10.178 whether people will be virtuous when they are afflicted and 21:10.180 --> 21:12.010 suffering. In other words, 21:12.009 --> 21:15.309 are people righteous only because God will reward them for 21:15.312 --> 21:17.172 it, or are they righteous because 21:17.169 --> 21:19.979 of the intrinsic and inherent value of righteousness? 21:19.980 --> 21:21.690 Those are the two issues. 21:21.690 --> 21:25.390 Now literarily, the book contains two primary 21:25.394 --> 21:27.974 elements. First, we have a prose story 21:27.972 --> 21:30.452 and that provides a framework for the book, 21:30.451 --> 21:33.931 that's chapters 1 and 2 and then it returns in chapter 42 at 21:33.934 --> 21:35.414 the end of the book. 21:35.410 --> 21:41.700 Into this prose framework a large poetic section of dialogue 21:41.701 --> 21:45.221 and speeches has been inserted. 21:45.220 --> 21:47.510 So there are two main literary components. 21:47.509 --> 21:51.399 Now the prose framework concerning a scrupulously 21:51.403 --> 21:55.223 righteous man named Job, afflicted by horrendous 21:55.215 --> 21:57.885 calamity, was probably a standard Ancient 21:57.887 --> 22:00.077 Near Eastern folktale of great antiquity. 22:00.080 --> 22:02.790 The story isn't set in Israel; it's not about an Israelite. 22:02.790 --> 22:04.290 It's set in Edom. 22:04.289 --> 22:08.109 Job is an eastern magnate who dwells in the country of Uz, 22:08.107 --> 22:09.377 not an Israelite. 22:09.380 --> 22:13.230 But the Israelite author has used this older Ancient Near 22:13.227 --> 22:17.347 Eastern legend about a man named Job for his own purposes. 22:17.349 --> 22:20.309 The name Job, which in Hebrew is pronounced, 22:20.312 --> 22:23.002 iyyov, is bivalent in meaning. 22:23.000 --> 22:27.030 It can mean "enemy" in Hebrew, by changing vowels around; 22:27.029 --> 22:30.009 but it's the root for enemy, oyev, or, 22:30.008 --> 22:33.728 if we take it in Aramaic, it can mean "one who repents," 22:33.730 --> 22:35.220 "a repentant one." 22:35.220 --> 22:39.040 And as we're going to see, the name will be appropriate in 22:39.036 --> 22:41.576 both senses as the story progresses. 22:41.579 --> 22:43.399 There's a handout on the side of the room. 22:43.400 --> 22:45.060 I'm not sure everyone took one when they came in. 22:45.059 --> 22:47.039 I'm wondering if it could be distributed please. 22:47.039 --> 22:48.799 I'm sorry. It's going to help you chart 22:48.800 --> 22:49.820 what goes on in Job. 22:49.819 --> 22:53.279 But this handout contains an outline of the book's structure 22:53.275 --> 22:55.965 on one side--so it's mapped out on one side. 22:55.970 --> 22:58.870 On the other side, it has some important verses 22:58.872 --> 23:01.862 and terms. But we'll see from the outline 23:01.855 --> 23:05.045 of the structure, chapters 1 and 2 have this 23:05.045 --> 23:09.195 prose prologue about the pious and prosperous Job and his 23:09.198 --> 23:12.038 devastation, which is the result of a 23:12.039 --> 23:14.079 challenge which is put to God. 23:14.079 --> 23:17.479 At the end of that prologue, at the end of chapter 2, 23:17.484 --> 23:21.354 he has three friends who come to sit with him in silence for 23:21.347 --> 23:24.207 seven days. The silence doesn't last very 23:24.214 --> 23:27.984 long because we move then into the large poetic section and 23:27.982 --> 23:31.432 that extends from chapter 3 all the way to chapter 42, 23:31.425 --> 23:34.345 verse 7. So you'll see that structure on 23:34.348 --> 23:37.698 the handout. There are many ways to map the 23:37.704 --> 23:40.194 structure of the Book of Job. 23:40.190 --> 23:44.020 Your handout charts, I think, one of the more common 23:44.018 --> 23:46.268 and clearer representations. 23:46.269 --> 23:49.429 Looking now specifically at the poetic section: 23:49.431 --> 23:52.941 First, you have a dialogue between Job and his three 23:52.936 --> 23:56.096 friends that goes from chapter 3 to chapter 31, 23:56.097 --> 23:58.807 verse40. And it can be divided into 23:58.809 --> 24:00.559 three cycles of speeches. 24:00.559 --> 24:03.859 Job opens each cycle--so the first speech in each cycle is by 24:03.862 --> 24:06.892 Job--and then his friends speak in a regular pattern. 24:06.890 --> 24:10.450 First, Eliphaz with Job responding and then Bildad with 24:10.446 --> 24:14.026 Job responding and then Zophar; and you have this pattern of 24:14.033 --> 24:16.853 six speeches. It occurs three times but in 24:16.853 --> 24:21.233 fact the third time the reply by Zophar is omitted and that 24:21.230 --> 24:25.910 deviation ensures that Job has the first and the last word. 24:25.910 --> 24:30.410 He has a summation speech in chapters 29 to 31. 24:30.410 --> 24:34.870 At first, the friends seek to comfort Job and to explain his 24:34.868 --> 24:38.418 suffering but they become increasingly harsh, 24:38.420 --> 24:42.920 ultimately bearing a callous contempt for Job's condition. 24:42.920 --> 24:46.710 Now this section closes with the long speech by Job, 24:46.706 --> 24:48.336 as I said: 29 to 31. 24:48.339 --> 24:51.209 He's lamenting the loss of his past, pleasant life. 24:51.210 --> 24:54.720 He protests his innocence, he calls on God to answer. 24:54.720 --> 24:57.760 But then Elihu, this previously unannounced 24:57.761 --> 24:59.501 fourth friend appears. 24:59.500 --> 25:02.850 He gives four speeches from chapters32 to 37. 25:02.850 --> 25:06.210 He admonishes Job; he defends God's justice, 25:06.214 --> 25:11.264 and then this is followed by a poetic discourse between God who 25:11.261 --> 25:15.901 poses a series of rhetorical questions and Job who appears 25:15.900 --> 25:18.650 contrite. And that section also falls 25:18.648 --> 25:21.268 into four parts rather like Elihu's speech. 25:21.269 --> 25:25.729 You have two long speeches by Yahweh, two short ones by Job. 25:25.730 --> 25:29.790 Finally, there's a concluding prose epilogue that vindicates 25:29.787 --> 25:32.237 Job. God criticizes Job's friends, 25:32.243 --> 25:35.343 and then in a rather unexpected happy ending, 25:35.342 --> 25:38.652 we have Job restored to his fortunes and finally 25:38.654 --> 25:41.124 experiencing a peaceful death. 25:41.119 --> 25:43.849 So let's look at the contents in greater deal now that we've 25:43.852 --> 25:45.012 reviewed the structure. 25:45.009 --> 25:47.639 The story opens by introducing us to Job. 25:47.640 --> 25:50.070 He's said to be a blameless and upright man. 25:50.069 --> 25:53.239 He fears God and he shuns evil, that is chapter 1, 25:53.242 --> 25:55.412 verse 1. So the moral virtue and 25:55.414 --> 25:59.064 innocence of Job is established in the opening line as a 25:59.059 --> 26:01.779 narrative fact, a non-negotiable narrative 26:01.777 --> 26:04.127 fact. And yet this Job is to become 26:04.129 --> 26:07.619 the victim of a challenge issued by "the satan" in the 26:07.624 --> 26:08.794 heavenly counsel. 26:08.789 --> 26:10.959 I say "the satan" deliberately. 26:10.960 --> 26:12.220 The satan. 26:12.220 --> 26:14.110 The satan is certainly not the devil. 26:14.109 --> 26:16.829 There's no such notion in the Hebrew Bible. 26:16.829 --> 26:21.319 The phrase, "the satan," occurs four times in the Hebrew Bible, 26:21.323 --> 26:24.443 here and in Numbers 22 and in Zechariah3. 26:24.440 --> 26:27.410 "The satan" is simply a member of the divine 26:27.406 --> 26:30.486 counsel--one of God's minions whose function it is to 26:30.491 --> 26:34.231 investigate affairs on earth and to act as a kind of prosecuting 26:34.230 --> 26:37.150 attorney. He has to bring evildoers to 26:37.148 --> 26:39.278 justice. And it's only in later Jewish, 26:39.279 --> 26:42.039 and especially Christian thought, that the term loses the 26:42.039 --> 26:44.849 definite article--from "the satan" which means "the 26:44.850 --> 26:48.430 prosecutor" essentially, the prosecuting attorney--and 26:48.429 --> 26:52.359 becomes a proper name, Satan, for an enemy or opponent 26:52.358 --> 26:55.268 of God. This later concept of Satan 26:55.268 --> 26:58.878 develops as a means of explaining evil without 26:58.882 --> 27:02.602 attributing it to God, but that isn't the function of 27:02.599 --> 27:03.909 the satan here. 27:03.910 --> 27:07.790 He works for God and when Yahweh boasts of his pious 27:07.793 --> 27:11.223 servant Job, the prosecuting angel wonders, 27:11.220 --> 27:15.420 as his portfolio requires him to do, whether Job's piety is 27:15.416 --> 27:17.486 sincere. Perhaps he's motivated by 27:17.490 --> 27:20.130 self-interest. Since he's been blessed with 27:20.125 --> 27:24.225 such good fortune and prosperity he's naturally enough pious and 27:24.232 --> 27:27.112 righteous, but would his piety survive 27:27.107 --> 27:29.057 affliction and suffering? 27:29.059 --> 27:33.079 Deprived of his wealth wouldn't he curse God to his face? 27:33.079 --> 27:36.039 You have to notice as you're reading the euphemistic use of 27:36.041 --> 27:37.931 "bless God" instead of "curse God." 27:37.930 --> 27:40.180 The ancient writers did not want to write down "curse God" 27:40.176 --> 27:42.636 so they wrote "bless God," but we need to understand 27:42.644 --> 27:45.814 that's a euphemistic way of avoiding writing "curse God." 27:45.809 --> 27:48.289 So wouldn't he curse God to his face? 27:48.289 --> 27:51.819 God is quite confident that Job's piety is not superficial, 27:51.821 --> 27:54.441 it's not driven by the desire for reward, 27:54.440 --> 27:57.410 and so he permits the satan to put Job to the 27:57.412 --> 27:59.272 test. Job's children are killed, 27:59.271 --> 28:02.231 his cattle are destroyed, his property is destroyed, 28:02.230 --> 28:06.300 but Job's response in chapter 1:21 is, "Naked I came from my 28:06.295 --> 28:09.115 mother's womb and naked I shall return; 28:09.119 --> 28:13.269 God gives and God takes away, may the name of the Lord be 28:13.269 --> 28:15.579 blessed. The narrator then adds in verse 28:15.581 --> 28:18.781 22, "In all this--," and if you flip over I've got some of these 28:18.775 --> 28:22.065 key verses on the back of your handout to help you keep track, 28:22.069 --> 28:27.459 "In all this Job did not sin or impute anything unsavory to 28:27.459 --> 28:30.219 God." And God again praises Job to 28:30.219 --> 28:33.759 the satan, saying, "And still he holds on 28:33.761 --> 28:37.151 to his integrity, so you incited me to destroy 28:37.152 --> 28:38.812 him for nothing." 28:38.810 --> 28:40.610 That's chapter 2:3. 28:40.609 --> 28:43.509 So the satan proposes increasing the suffering, 28:43.511 --> 28:46.961 and God agrees on the condition that Job's life be preserved. 28:46.960 --> 28:50.660 So the satan strikes Job's body with these terrible 28:50.655 --> 28:53.505 painful sores, trying to crush his spirit and 28:53.508 --> 28:56.778 Job's wife rages, "Do you still hold on to your 28:56.784 --> 28:59.994 integrity? Bless God," curse God "and 28:59.994 --> 29:01.814 die," chapter 2:9. 29:01.809 --> 29:04.629 But still Job will not sin, he will not curse God, 29:04.632 --> 29:07.572 he insists on remaining virtuous and he responds, 29:07.569 --> 29:11.009 "Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not 29:11.005 --> 29:13.585 receive evil?" So at first glance it would 29:13.589 --> 29:16.049 appear that Job accepts his bitter fate. 29:16.049 --> 29:18.699 But note: after the first round of suffering, 29:18.695 --> 29:22.235 the narrator observed that "in all this Job did not sin with 29:22.243 --> 29:25.193 his lips or impute anything unsavory to God," 29:25.190 --> 29:28.920 but now he merely observes, "in all this Job did not sin 29:28.917 --> 29:31.837 with his lips." Not with his lips perhaps, 29:31.841 --> 29:35.591 but in his heart did he impute unsavory things to God? 29:35.589 --> 29:40.109 If we were to move directly to the conclusion of the folktale 29:40.113 --> 29:42.983 in chapter 42, if we jump from this point just 29:42.976 --> 29:45.596 to the conclusion, in 42:7 is where the conclusion 29:45.595 --> 29:47.685 begins, we would find that Job is 29:47.687 --> 29:51.427 rewarded fully for his patience and steadfast loyalty and his 29:51.425 --> 29:55.345 household and his belongings are restored to him twice over. 29:55.349 --> 30:00.139 The folktale standing alone could be read as the story of an 30:00.138 --> 30:03.708 innocent man tested, who accepts his fate. 30:03.710 --> 30:06.650 He retains his faith, and he's rewarded. 30:06.650 --> 30:09.070 Standing alone, the tale appears to reflect the 30:09.073 --> 30:12.083 values and the conventional piety of the Wisdom literature 30:12.077 --> 30:14.077 and of the Deuteronomistic school. 30:14.079 --> 30:16.629 But the folktale doesn't stand alone. 30:16.630 --> 30:20.290 The anonymous author of Job uses this earlier legend 30:20.290 --> 30:25.100 concerning the righteous man Job as a frame for his own purposes, 30:25.099 --> 30:28.959 and the hint at the end of the prologue that Job perhaps is 30:28.960 --> 30:32.890 beginning to impute unsavory things to God points forward to 30:32.888 --> 30:36.348 this extensive poetic dialogue that's following. 30:36.349 --> 30:40.579 Here are Job's unsavory accusations against God. 30:40.579 --> 30:44.279 Here we have a most impatient and furious Job who will charge 30:44.284 --> 30:47.994 God with gross mismanagement of the world and eventually deny 30:47.989 --> 30:50.829 the existence of a moral order altogether. 30:50.829 --> 30:54.629 So reading the Book of Job is a fascinating exercise because the 30:54.629 --> 30:56.799 two types of material in the book, 30:56.799 --> 30:59.999 the prose frame and the poetic dialogue in the middle, 30:59.998 --> 31:01.868 they appear to be in tension. 31:01.869 --> 31:04.129 And yet interwoven, as they are now, 31:04.127 --> 31:08.317 they work together and the one shapes our reading of the other. 31:08.319 --> 31:11.399 Our reception of the accusations of Job's friends in 31:11.400 --> 31:14.480 the poetic dialogue--our reception of those words is 31:14.481 --> 31:17.681 determined by the prose framework's assertion that Job 31:17.682 --> 31:20.152 is innocent. That's a non-negotiable 31:20.150 --> 31:23.930 narrative fact and because of the fact of Job's righteousness, 31:23.930 --> 31:27.390 we know Job's friends are lying when they say Job must be 31:27.385 --> 31:29.355 suffering for some hidden sin. 31:29.359 --> 31:31.349 And we know that Job's self-defense, 31:31.350 --> 31:34.250 that he hasn't deserved the suffering is correct. 31:34.250 --> 31:37.450 We're going to rehearse some of the arguments that are advanced 31:37.453 --> 31:39.813 in the central core, the poetic core of the book, 31:39.811 --> 31:41.691 and here I think a helpful guide through the 31:41.687 --> 31:44.477 arguments--there are lots of commentaries on the Book of Job, 31:44.480 --> 31:47.580 but one commentary that I think is helpful in just sort of 31:47.584 --> 31:50.694 working through some of the arguments of the interlocutors 31:50.688 --> 31:52.538 is the analysis of Edwin Good. 31:52.539 --> 31:56.949 Although Job doesn't exactly curse God in his first speech, 31:56.954 --> 31:59.774 he does curse the day of his birth. 31:59.769 --> 32:02.919 And in a passage that alludes repeatedly to creation, 32:02.917 --> 32:06.667 Job essentially curses all that God has accomplished as creator 32:06.670 --> 32:09.120 of the cosmos. He wishes he were dead, 32:09.120 --> 32:12.550 and at this point he doesn't even ask why this has happened 32:12.549 --> 32:15.979 to him, he only asks why he should be alive when he prefers 32:15.979 --> 32:18.919 death. Eliphaz's reply is long and 32:18.917 --> 32:22.067 elaborate. He seems to offer comfort. 32:22.069 --> 32:24.999 He seems to offer comfort, until he injects a new 32:24.998 --> 32:28.298 element in the discussion and that's the element of justice. 32:28.299 --> 32:32.229 Job hasn't mentioned the issue of justice up to this point, 32:32.226 --> 32:35.336 but Eliphaz says, "Think now, what innocent man 32:35.341 --> 32:38.121 ever perished? / Where have the upright been 32:38.118 --> 32:39.848 destroyed? / As I have seen, 32:39.854 --> 32:43.694 those who plow evil / And sow mischief reap them," chapter 32:43.693 --> 32:45.923 4:7-8. So Eliphaz is handing Job the 32:45.924 --> 32:49.294 standard line of biblical Wisdom literature as exemplified by 32:49.285 --> 32:51.465 something like the book of Proverbs, 32:51.470 --> 32:55.410 belief in a system of divine retributive justice--that 32:55.413 --> 32:57.053 retribution is just. 32:57.049 --> 33:00.889 By definition there can be no undeserved suffering. 33:00.890 --> 33:04.030 The implication is that Job has deserved this suffering--a 33:04.033 --> 33:07.013 thought that apparently hadn't occurred to Job--and the 33:07.011 --> 33:10.321 question of undeserved suffering is now going to dominate the 33:10.320 --> 33:11.920 rest of the discussion. 33:11.920 --> 33:13.820 Job's second speech is very disorderly. 33:13.819 --> 33:16.539 It's full of wildly contradictory images that may 33:16.535 --> 33:19.985 reflect the shock and the pain and the rage that now overwhelm 33:19.987 --> 33:21.827 him. He seems to be haunted by 33:21.827 --> 33:24.987 Eliphaz's connection of his suffering with some sin and so 33:24.991 --> 33:26.991 he turns to address God directly. 33:26.990 --> 33:29.780 He admits he's not perfect but surely, he objects, 33:29.776 --> 33:31.876 he doesn't deserve such affliction. 33:31.880 --> 33:36.840 In chapter 8 we have Bildad's speech and it's tactless and 33:36.837 --> 33:39.617 unkind. He says, "Will God pervert the 33:39.622 --> 33:41.372 right? / Will the Almighty pervert 33:41.372 --> 33:43.152 justice? / If your sons sinned against 33:43.148 --> 33:45.938 Him, / He dispatched them for their transgressions," 8:3-4. 33:45.940 --> 33:48.040 In other words, God is perfectly just and 33:48.041 --> 33:50.091 ultimately all get what they deserve. 33:50.089 --> 33:53.189 Indeed, your children, Job, must have died because 33:53.193 --> 33:56.743 they sinned, so just search for God and ask for mercy. 33:56.740 --> 34:01.060 The friends' speeches lead Job to the conclusion that God must 34:01.055 --> 34:03.385 be indifferent to moral status. 34:03.390 --> 34:06.940 God doesn't follow the rules that he demands of human beings. 34:06.940 --> 34:10.530 This is chapter 9:22, "He finishes off both perfect 34:10.533 --> 34:12.943 and wicked." When Job complains, 34:12.944 --> 34:16.274 "He wounds me much for nothing," chapter 9:17, 34:16.272 --> 34:20.262 he's echoing God's own words to the satan in the 34:20.264 --> 34:22.814 prologue. Remember when God says to the 34:22.806 --> 34:26.076 satan you have "incited me to destroy him for nothing," 34:26.079 --> 34:30.659 and we suspect by this verbal coincidence that Job is right. 34:30.659 --> 34:33.949 Legal terms dominate, as Job calls for the charges 34:33.948 --> 34:36.968 against him to be published, and then he hurls 34:36.968 --> 34:39.718 countercharges in a suit against God. 34:39.719 --> 34:43.269 Charges of unworthy conduct, of spurning his creatures while 34:43.267 --> 34:46.637 smiling on the wicked, on scrutinizing Job even though 34:46.644 --> 34:50.334 he knows Job to be innocent, and this too is a subversion of 34:50.326 --> 34:53.376 a common prophetic literary genre that we've seen: 34:53.384 --> 34:57.254 the riv or the covenant lawsuit in which God through his 34:57.253 --> 35:00.943 prophets charges Israel with flagrant violation of the terms 35:00.935 --> 35:04.675 of the covenant and warns of inevitable punishment. 35:04.679 --> 35:08.279 Here, in Job, it's a man who arraigns God and 35:08.278 --> 35:11.788 yet, Job asserts, since God is God and not a 35:11.794 --> 35:15.404 human adversary, there's really no fair way for 35:15.401 --> 35:18.821 the lawsuit between them to be tried or arbitrated. 35:18.820 --> 35:22.010 "Man cannot win a suit against God," chapter 9:2. 35:22.010 --> 35:25.160 Job is powerless in the face of this injustice. 35:25.159 --> 35:30.179 These ideas all find expression in Job 10:1-7: 35:30.180 --> 35:33.550 I am disgusted with life; I will give rein to my 35:33.546 --> 35:36.096 complaint, Speak in the bitterness of my 35:36.101 --> 35:37.481 soul. I say to God, 35:37.479 --> 35:40.889 "Do not condemn men; Let me know what You charge me 35:40.885 --> 35:43.305 with. Does it benefit You to defraud, 35:43.309 --> 35:45.639 To despise the toil of Your hands, 35:45.639 --> 35:47.569 While smiling on the counsel of the wicked? 35:47.570 --> 35:49.660 Do You have the eyes of flesh? 35:49.660 --> 35:51.920 Is Your vision that of mere men? 35:51.920 --> 35:54.390 Are Your days the days of a mortal? 35:54.389 --> 35:55.939 Are Your years the years of a man, 35:55.940 --> 35:58.990 That You seek my inequity And search out my sin? 35:58.990 --> 36:02.400 You know that I am not guilty, And that there is none to 36:02.403 --> 36:06.233 deliver from Your hand… Job repeats his wish to die, 36:06.229 --> 36:10.129 this time less because of his suffering and more because his 36:10.126 --> 36:11.906 worldview has collapsed. 36:11.909 --> 36:16.679 He sees that divine power is utterly divorced from justice 36:16.681 --> 36:22.041 and that's a second fundamental biblical assumption subverted. 36:22.039 --> 36:25.899 But Job's words only seem to egg his interlocutors on. 36:25.900 --> 36:28.670 Eliphaz had implied that Job was a sinner. 36:28.670 --> 36:31.960 Bildad had baldly asserted that his sons had died for their sins 36:31.958 --> 36:35.138 and now Zophar's going to claim that actually Job is suffering 36:35.142 --> 36:36.502 less then he deserves. 36:36.500 --> 36:38.410 And Job isn't persuaded. 36:38.409 --> 36:40.729 He isn't persuaded that he has sinned or more precisely, 36:40.734 --> 36:42.934 that he has sinned in proportion to the punishment he 36:42.932 --> 36:43.822 is now suffering. 36:43.820 --> 36:46.160 God is simply unjust. 36:46.159 --> 36:50.899 The Job of this poetic dialogue portion of the book is hardly 36:50.899 --> 36:52.399 patient or pious. 36:52.400 --> 36:54.410 He is angry, he is violent, 36:54.408 --> 36:58.578 he argues, he complains and vehemently insists upon his 36:58.578 --> 37:01.228 innocence. In the fourth speech by 37:01.230 --> 37:05.120 Job--now this is the speech that opens the second cycle of 37:05.123 --> 37:07.653 speeches--Job appeals to creation. 37:07.650 --> 37:12.440 God's controlling power is arbitrary and unprincipled. 37:12.440 --> 37:16.200 He interferes with the natural order, he interferes with the 37:16.198 --> 37:19.888 human order, and this is itself a subversion of the Genesis 37:19.893 --> 37:23.463 portrait of creation as a process whose goal and crown is 37:23.460 --> 37:27.590 humankind. Again, Job demands a trial. 37:27.590 --> 37:31.190 He demands a trial in the widely quoted and mistranslated 37:31.190 --> 37:34.340 verse--this is Job 13:15: "He may well slay me. 37:34.340 --> 37:38.930 I may have no hope-- but I must argue my case before Him." 37:38.929 --> 37:41.299 In other words, Job knows that he can't win but 37:41.298 --> 37:43.048 he still wants his day in court. 37:43.050 --> 37:45.990 He wants to make his accusation of God's mismanagement. 37:45.989 --> 37:49.459 He wants to voice his protest even though he knows it will 37:49.462 --> 37:50.622 gain him nothing. 37:50.619 --> 37:52.849 In a pun on his name, Iyyov, 37:52.852 --> 37:55.482 Job asks God, "Why do You hide Your face, 37:55.477 --> 37:57.707 / And treat me like an enemy?" 37:57.710 --> 38:01.470 ,treat me like an oyev, 13:28. 38:01.469 --> 38:05.279 In his second speech Job fully expects to be murdered, 38:05.282 --> 38:08.302 not executed, but murdered by God and hopes 38:08.304 --> 38:12.624 only that the evidence of his murder will not be concealed he 38:12.621 --> 38:16.611 says in 16:18, "Earth, do not cover my blood" . 38:16.610 --> 38:20.330 Job's third speech reiterates this desire, the desire that the 38:20.326 --> 38:22.576 wrong against him not be forgotten. 38:22.579 --> 38:24.989 "Would that my words were written, would that they were 38:24.987 --> 38:29.257 engraved in an inscription, with an iron stylus and lead, 38:29.261 --> 38:33.991 forever in rock they were incised," 19:23-24. 38:33.989 --> 38:38.189 Job's three speeches in the second cycle become increasingly 38:38.190 --> 38:42.680 emotional and for their part the speeches of his friends in this 38:42.676 --> 38:45.236 cycle become increasingly cruel. 38:45.239 --> 38:50.539 Their insistence that suffering is always a sure sign of sin 38:50.539 --> 38:55.749 seems to justify hostility towards and contempt for Job. 38:55.750 --> 38:58.250 He's now depicted as universally mocked and 38:58.248 --> 39:00.448 humiliated and despised and abused. 39:00.449 --> 39:04.779 One cannot help but see in this characterization of Job's 39:04.782 --> 39:08.052 so-called friends, an incisive commentary on the 39:08.050 --> 39:10.780 callous human propensity to blame the victim, 39:10.780 --> 39:14.430 and to do so lest our tidy and comfortable picture of a moral 39:14.429 --> 39:17.349 universe in which the righteous do not suffer, 39:17.349 --> 39:21.189 should come apart at the seams as Job's has. 39:21.190 --> 39:25.120 Job opens the third cycle of speeches urging his friends to 39:25.123 --> 39:28.723 look, to really see his situation, because if they did 39:28.718 --> 39:30.548 they would be appalled. 39:30.550 --> 39:33.890 Job's situation looked at honestly requires the admission 39:33.888 --> 39:37.288 that God has done this for no reason and that the friends' 39:37.285 --> 39:39.665 understanding of the world is a lie. 39:39.670 --> 39:42.490 Job asserts baldly: there is no distributive 39:42.494 --> 39:46.444 justice, there's no coherent or orderly system of morality in 39:46.436 --> 39:48.206 this life or any other. 39:48.210 --> 39:50.700 There is no principle of afterlife, after all, 39:50.701 --> 39:51.921 in the Hebrew Bible. 39:51.920 --> 39:57.370 Chapter 21:7-26: Why do the wicked live on, 39:57.370 --> 39:59.110 Prosper and grow wealthy? 39:59.110 --> 40:01.300 Their children are with them always, 40:01.300 --> 40:03.210 And they see their children's children. 40:03.210 --> 40:04.850 Their homes are secure, without fear; 40:04.850 --> 40:07.120 They do not feel the rod of God. 40:07.120 --> 40:08.720 …their children skip about. 40:08.719 --> 40:10.969 They sing to the music of timbrel and lute, 40:10.969 --> 40:12.879 And revel to the tune of the pipe; 40:12.880 --> 40:14.600 They spend their days in happiness, 40:14.600 --> 40:17.000 And go down to Sheol in peace. 40:17.000 --> 40:19.400 …How seldom does the lamp of the wicked fail, 40:19.400 --> 40:21.990 Does the calamity they deserve befall them? 40:21.989 --> 40:23.829 …[You say,] "God is reserving his 40:23.829 --> 40:27.079 punishment for his sons"; Let it be paid back to Him that 40:27.084 --> 40:29.624 He may feel it, ...One man dies in robust 40:29.623 --> 40:31.943 health, All tranquil and untroubled; 40:31.940 --> 40:35.440 His pails are full of milk; The marrow of his bones is 40:35.441 --> 40:37.921 juicy. Another dies embittered, 40:37.920 --> 40:39.790 Never having tasted happiness. 40:39.790 --> 40:42.700 They both lie in the dust And are covered with 40:42.695 --> 40:45.185 worms. But the friends can't look 40:45.187 --> 40:47.937 honestly at Job; they can't allow that, 40:47.942 --> 40:51.022 indeed, a righteous man suffers horribly. 40:51.019 --> 40:55.649 By the end of the third cycle Job is ready and eager for his 40:55.648 --> 40:58.078 trial, but he can't find God. 40:58.079 --> 41:02.459 Job's final speech in the third cycle focuses on this theme of 41:02.459 --> 41:05.519 divine absence. God is irresponsibly absent 41:05.518 --> 41:08.988 from the world and the result is human wickedness. 41:08.989 --> 41:12.469 So from the idea that God is morally neutral or indifferent, 41:12.474 --> 41:15.964 Job has moved to the implicit charge that God is responsible 41:15.958 --> 41:18.208 for wickedness. He rewards wickedness; 41:18.210 --> 41:21.880 he causes wickedness by his absence, his failure to govern 41:21.881 --> 41:24.631 properly. He is both corrupt and a 41:24.632 --> 41:26.422 corrupter of others. 41:26.420 --> 41:29.420 "If it is not so, he says, who will prove me a 41:29.416 --> 41:31.876 liar and bring my words to nought." 41:31.880 --> 41:36.500 Yet, even in the depths of his anguish, and even though he is 41:36.500 --> 41:40.890 now convinced that God does not enforce a moral law in the 41:40.889 --> 41:43.569 universe, Job clings to one value: 41:43.568 --> 41:46.508 righteousness is a virtue in and of itself, 41:46.505 --> 41:50.345 and even if it brings no reward Job will not give up his 41:50.351 --> 41:53.601 righteousness. Face to face with the shocking 41:53.601 --> 41:57.511 insight that good and evil are met with indifference by God, 41:57.510 --> 42:00.570 that righteousness brings no reward and wickedness no 42:00.569 --> 42:04.639 punishment, Job although bitter, refuses to succumb to a moral 42:04.644 --> 42:08.714 nihilism. Chapter 27:2-6: 42:08.710 --> 42:11.850 By God who has deprived me of justice! 42:11.849 --> 42:14.059 By Shaddai who has embittered my life! 42:14.060 --> 42:17.760 As long as there is life in me, And God's breath is in my 42:17.762 --> 42:20.302 nostrils, My lips will speak no wrong, 42:20.300 --> 42:21.940 Nor my tongue utter deceit. 42:21.940 --> 42:24.420 Far be it for me to say that you are right; 42:24.420 --> 42:27.720 Until I die I will maintain my integrity. 42:27.719 --> 42:31.269 I persist in my righteousness and will not yield; 42:31.269 --> 42:34.569 I shall be free of reproach as long as I live. 42:34.570 --> 42:37.250 These last lines recall the words of God and the 42:37.249 --> 42:38.959 satan in the prelude. 42:38.960 --> 42:41.840 The satan had said that a man will not hold on to virtue 42:41.843 --> 42:44.033 or to righteousness in the face of suffering. 42:44.030 --> 42:46.850 He'll give everything away for his life. 42:46.849 --> 42:50.789 So this narrative set-up guides or influences our interpretation 42:50.785 --> 42:52.405 of Job's statement here. 42:52.409 --> 42:55.769 Although he is losing his life, Job says he will not give 42:55.769 --> 42:59.949 anything away but he holds onto, he maintains his integrity just 42:59.947 --> 43:03.327 as God had scolded the satan in chapter 2:3 43:03.325 --> 43:05.655 which reads, "Still he holds onto his 43:05.662 --> 43:08.122 integrity. You have incited me to destroy 43:08.122 --> 43:09.242 him for nothing." 43:09.239 --> 43:12.589 So in his darkest, most bitter hour with all hope 43:12.592 --> 43:15.742 of reward gone, Job clings to the one thing he 43:15.735 --> 43:17.895 has--his own righteousness. 43:17.900 --> 43:21.300 In fact, when all hope of just reward is gone then 43:21.303 --> 43:24.293 righteousness becomes an intrinsic value. 43:24.289 --> 43:28.409 Yehezkel Kaufman writes of this moment, "the poet raises Job to 43:28.409 --> 43:31.599 the bleak summit of righteousness bereft of hope, 43:31.598 --> 43:34.188 bereft of faith in divine justice". 43:34.190 --> 43:37.080 Or in the words of another scholar, Moshe Greenberg, 43:37.077 --> 43:39.647 we see here ..the sheer heroism of a 43:39.648 --> 43:43.268 naked man, forsaken by his God and his friends and bereft of a 43:43.265 --> 43:45.395 clue to understand his suffering, 43:45.400 --> 43:49.170 still maintaining faith in the value of his virtue and in the 43:49.171 --> 43:51.561 absolute duty of man to be virtuous. 43:51.559 --> 43:53.959 The universe has turned its back on him. 43:53.960 --> 43:57.240 We may add he believes God has turned his back on him--yet Job 43:57.235 --> 43:59.965 persists in the affirmation of his own worth and the 43:59.974 --> 44:03.684 transcendent worth of unrewarded good [Greenberg 1987,285]. 44:03.679 --> 44:06.909 So in a way then, for all their differences in 44:06.912 --> 44:10.222 style and manner, the patient Job of the legend 44:10.216 --> 44:13.516 and the raging Job of the poetic dialogue, 44:13.520 --> 44:15.690 are basically the same man. 44:15.690 --> 44:18.780 Each ultimately remains firm in his moral character, 44:18.784 --> 44:22.124 clinging to righteousness because of its intrinsic value 44:22.122 --> 44:24.552 and not because it will be rewarded. 44:24.550 --> 44:27.960 Indeed, Job knows bitterly that it will not. 44:27.960 --> 44:32.730 At the end of his outburst, Job sues God. 44:32.730 --> 44:37.040 He issues Him a summons and he demands that God reveal to him 44:37.035 --> 44:39.255 the reason for his suffering. 44:39.260 --> 44:42.730 Job pronounces a series of curses to clear himself from the 44:42.726 --> 44:46.016 accusations against him, specifying the sins he has not 44:46.015 --> 44:47.915 committed and ending, as he began, 44:47.924 --> 44:50.794 in chapter 3, with a curse on the day of his 44:50.787 --> 44:52.937 birth. We expect to hear from God now 44:52.936 --> 44:55.646 but instead we hear from an unannounced stranger, 44:55.651 --> 44:57.571 Elihu. I'm going to have to give Elihu 44:57.572 --> 45:00.232 short shrift. He's the only one of the four 45:00.230 --> 45:04.410 interlocutors to refer to Job by name, address Job by name. 45:04.409 --> 45:08.549 He repeats many of the trite assertions of Job's friends. 45:08.550 --> 45:12.160 He does hint, however, that not all suffering 45:12.161 --> 45:14.511 is punitive. He also hints that 45:14.511 --> 45:18.251 contemplation of nature's elements can open the mind to a 45:18.251 --> 45:21.591 new awareness of God and in these two respects, 45:21.590 --> 45:26.610 Elihu's speech moves us towards God's answer from the storm. 45:26.610 --> 45:30.160 So in the climatic moment, God answers Job in an 45:30.159 --> 45:33.859 extraordinary theophany, or self-manifestation. 45:33.860 --> 45:37.840 In chapter 38 God speaks out of the tempest or whirlwind, 45:37.835 --> 45:40.315 "Who is this who darkens counsel, 45:40.320 --> 45:43.880 speaking without knowledge," is he referring to Job, 45:43.884 --> 45:46.894 to Elihu, the three friends, all of them? 45:46.889 --> 45:49.809 God has heard enough, it's his turn to ask questions, 45:49.807 --> 45:52.217 the answers to which are clearly implied; 45:52.220 --> 45:53.880 these are rhetorical questions. 45:53.880 --> 45:56.520 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? 45:56.520 --> 45:58.360 Speak if you have understanding. 45:58.360 --> 46:00.690 Do you know who fixed its dimensions 46:00.690 --> 46:02.190 Or who measured it with a line?" 46:02.190 --> 46:05.480 You did, God. …Have you ever commanded the 46:05.482 --> 46:07.912 day to break, Assigned the dawn its place, 46:07.909 --> 46:10.519 …Have you penetrated to the sources of the sea, 46:10.519 --> 46:12.599 Or walked in the recesses of the deep? 46:12.600 --> 46:14.540 No, no human has. 46:14.539 --> 46:16.899 And God continues with these rhetorical questions, 46:16.895 --> 46:18.525 questions regarding the animals, 46:18.530 --> 46:22.480 their various powers and attributes, but one wonders what 46:22.479 --> 46:25.299 the purpose of all these questions is. 46:25.300 --> 46:28.400 One senses that they are irrelevant. 46:28.400 --> 46:32.290 Job has posed some very specific challenges to God. 46:32.290 --> 46:33.640 Why am I suffering? 46:33.640 --> 46:35.710 Is there a pattern to existence? 46:35.710 --> 46:39.150 Is God's refusal to answer these challenges a way of saying 46:39.145 --> 46:40.385 there is no answer? 46:40.389 --> 46:43.839 Or is it God's way of saying that justice is beyond human 46:43.843 --> 46:46.823 understanding? Or is this theophany of God in 46:46.819 --> 46:50.469 nature and the focus on creation, an implicit assault on 46:50.466 --> 46:54.106 the fundamental tenant of Israelite religion that God is 46:54.113 --> 46:58.493 known and made manifest through his interactions with humans, 46:58.489 --> 47:02.359 his rewards and punishments in historical time. 47:02.360 --> 47:05.260 You'll recall that the monotheistic revolution is 47:05.257 --> 47:08.217 generally understood to have effected a break from 47:08.216 --> 47:11.896 mythological conceptions of the gods as indistinguishable from 47:11.899 --> 47:15.819 various natural forces, limited by meta-divine powers 47:15.817 --> 47:17.757 and forces of the cosmos. 47:17.760 --> 47:20.450 The biblical God wasn't another Ancient Near Eastern or 47:20.453 --> 47:23.693 Canaanite nature God ultimately, but a wholly transcendent 47:23.690 --> 47:26.770 power--He was figured this way in many parts of the 47:26.769 --> 47:30.469 Bible--known not through the involuntary and recurring cycles 47:30.465 --> 47:34.405 of nature but through His freely willed and non-repeating actions 47:34.408 --> 47:36.008 in historical time. 47:36.010 --> 47:39.780 Such a view of God underwrites the whole system of divine 47:39.779 --> 47:41.259 retributive justice. 47:41.260 --> 47:44.550 Only an essentially good God who transcends and is 47:44.551 --> 47:48.581 unconstrained by mechanistic natural forces can establish and 47:48.582 --> 47:51.742 administer a system of retributive justice, 47:51.739 --> 47:54.939 dealing out punishment and reward in response to the 47:54.942 --> 47:56.702 actions of humans in time. 47:56.699 --> 48:00.799 Is the author of Job suggesting that history and the events that 48:00.802 --> 48:04.122 befall the just and the unjust are not the medium of 48:04.123 --> 48:07.053 revelation? Is God a god of nature after 48:07.050 --> 48:10.810 all, encountered in the repeating cycles of the natural 48:10.810 --> 48:14.150 world and not in the unpredictable and incoherent 48:14.153 --> 48:16.873 arena of human history and action? 48:16.869 --> 48:20.859 If so, then this is a third fundamental biblical assumption 48:20.862 --> 48:23.342 that has been radically subverted. 48:23.340 --> 48:27.660 So we'll turn now to God's direct speech to Job in 40:8,40, 48:27.664 --> 48:29.234 verse 8, excuse me. 48:29.230 --> 48:31.400 "Would you impugn my justice? 48:31.400 --> 48:34.540 / Would you condemn Me that you be right?" 48:34.539 --> 48:36.869 God, I think, is now getting at the heart of 48:36.874 --> 48:40.244 the matter: your friends Job were wrong, they condemned you. 48:40.239 --> 48:43.089 They attributed sin to you, so that they might be right. 48:43.090 --> 48:46.040 But you, too, have been wrong condemning Me, 48:46.040 --> 48:50.020 attributing wickedness to Me so that you might be right. 48:50.019 --> 48:52.859 Job's friends erred because they assumed that there's a 48:52.864 --> 48:55.924 system of retributive justice at work in the world and that 48:55.919 --> 48:59.289 assumption led them to infer that all who suffer are sinful, 48:59.290 --> 49:01.130 and that's a blatant falsehood. 49:01.130 --> 49:04.170 But Job also errs; if he assumes that although 49:04.170 --> 49:06.610 there isn't a system of retributive justice, 49:06.606 --> 49:08.416 there really ought to be one. 49:08.420 --> 49:12.420 It's that assumption that leads him to infer that suffering is a 49:12.423 --> 49:16.113 sign of an indifferent or wicked God, and that is equally a 49:16.110 --> 49:19.110 falsehood. Job needs to move beyond the 49:19.110 --> 49:22.580 anthropocentrism that characterizes the rest of 49:22.576 --> 49:26.416 Scripture and the Genesis 1 account of creation, 49:26.420 --> 49:30.860 according to which humankind is the goal of the entire process 49:30.860 --> 49:32.890 of creation. God's creation, 49:32.893 --> 49:35.873 the Book of Job seems to suggest, defies such 49:35.866 --> 49:38.566 teleological and rational categories. 49:38.570 --> 49:41.620 In a nutshell, God refuses to be seen as a 49:41.624 --> 49:43.044 moral accountant. 49:43.039 --> 49:46.399 The idea of God as a moral accountant is responsible for 49:46.399 --> 49:49.329 two major errors: the interpretation of suffering 49:49.330 --> 49:53.620 as an indicator of sin, or the ascription of injustice 49:53.624 --> 49:56.164 to God. In his final speech, 49:56.157 --> 50:00.997 Job confesses to a new firsthand knowledge of God that 50:01.002 --> 50:04.122 he lacked before, and as a result of this 50:04.122 --> 50:06.712 knowledge Job repents, "Therefore, I recant and 50:06.707 --> 50:09.907 relent, / Being but dust and ashes," 50:09.913 --> 50:12.213 42:6. Here we see the other meaning 50:12.213 --> 50:14.663 of Job's name, "one who repents," suddenly 50:14.664 --> 50:15.864 leap to the fore. 50:15.860 --> 50:17.440 What is he repenting of? 50:17.440 --> 50:20.180 Certainly not of sin; God has not upheld the 50:20.181 --> 50:21.571 accusations against Job. 50:21.570 --> 50:24.660 Indeed he states explicitly in a moment that the friends were 50:24.664 --> 50:26.164 wrong to say he had sinned. 50:26.159 --> 50:28.839 But he has indicated that guilt and innocence, 50:28.838 --> 50:32.348 reward and punishment are not what the game is all about, 50:32.349 --> 50:35.289 and while Job had long been disabused of the notion that the 50:35.289 --> 50:38.179 wicked and the righteous actually get what they deserve, 50:38.179 --> 50:41.499 he nevertheless had clung to the idea that ideally they 50:41.497 --> 50:43.437 should. And it's that mistaken 50:43.443 --> 50:47.313 idea--the idea that led him to ascribe wickedness to God--that 50:47.306 --> 50:50.296 Job now recants. With this new understanding of 50:50.299 --> 50:53.759 God, Job is liberated from what he would now see as a false 50:53.758 --> 50:56.858 expectation raised by the Deuteronomistic notion of a 50:56.859 --> 51:00.019 covenant relationship between God and humankind, 51:00.019 --> 51:02.879 enforced by a system of divine justice. 51:02.880 --> 51:06.170 At the end of the story Job is fully restored to his fortunes. 51:06.170 --> 51:09.250 God asserts he did no evil and the conventional, 51:09.250 --> 51:13.310 impeccably Deuteronomistic view of the three friends is clearly 51:13.313 --> 51:14.693 denounced by God. 51:14.690 --> 51:16.790 He says of them, "They have not spoken of Me 51:16.786 --> 51:18.976 what is right as my servant Job has," 42:7. 51:18.980 --> 51:21.760 For some, the happy ending seems anticlimactic, 51:21.756 --> 51:25.016 a capitulation to the demand for a happy ending of just 51:25.016 --> 51:28.816 desserts that runs counter to the whole thrust of the book, 51:28.820 --> 51:32.020 and yet in a way I think the ending is superbly fitting. 51:32.019 --> 51:35.589 It's the last in a series of reversals that subverts our 51:35.587 --> 51:38.287 expectations. Suffering comes inexplicably, 51:38.294 --> 51:41.604 so does restoration; blessed be the name of the Lord. 51:41.599 --> 51:46.629 God doesn't attempt to justify or explain Job's suffering and 51:46.633 --> 51:50.743 yet somehow by the end of the book, our grumbling, 51:50.744 --> 51:54.104 embittered, raging Job is satisfied. 51:54.099 --> 51:57.129 Perhaps he's realized that an automatic principle of reward 51:57.127 --> 52:00.207 and punishment would make it impossible for humans to do the 52:00.207 --> 52:02.397 good for purely disinterested motives. 52:02.400 --> 52:05.100 It's precisely when righteousness is seen to be 52:05.095 --> 52:08.195 absurd and meaningless that the choice to be righteous 52:08.201 --> 52:10.371 paradoxically becomes meaningful. 52:10.369 --> 52:13.019 God and Job, however we are to interpret 52:13.018 --> 52:15.258 their speeches, are reconciled. 52:15.260 --> 52:18.540 The suffering and injustice that characterize the world have 52:18.539 --> 52:20.429 baffled humankind for millennia. 52:20.429 --> 52:23.589 And the Book of Job provides no answer in the sense of an 52:23.587 --> 52:26.967 explanation or a justification of suffering and injustice, 52:26.969 --> 52:30.519 but what it does offer is a stern warning to avoid the 52:30.520 --> 52:34.410 Scylla of blaspheming against the victims by assuming their 52:34.405 --> 52:36.695 wickedness, and the Charybdis of 52:36.695 --> 52:39.325 blaspheming against God by assuming his. 52:39.329 --> 52:42.639 Nor is moral nihilism an option, as our hero, 52:42.635 --> 52:45.485 yearning for, but ultimately renouncing 52:45.491 --> 52:49.801 divine order and justice, clings to his integrity and 52:49.795 --> 52:51.995 chooses virtue for nothing.