"12 I was at ease, and he broke me in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; 13 his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground. 14 He bursts upon me again and again; he rushes at me like a warrior. 15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my strength in the dust. 16 My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, 17 though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure."
A. What is the overall impression you receive about Job (and God) after reading these verses aloud?
B. How was Job "at ease?" The word may also be translated as "quiet" or "untroubled." How would you describe your "pre-distress" life?
C. Note the first image used: "he broke me in two." Job is now a fractured man and not a man of wholeness. Contrast the language here with that in 1:1 describing Job. Is the language of fracturing a helpful image to describe what has come upon Job? What other one might you use?
D. I will give a number of verbs now that capture Job's self-description. He feels "fractured" (or "shattered"). He is "smashed" (or "dashed in pieces"). He is "pierced" and "slashed" by the divine arrows. His inner life forces are "poured out." He is "terrorized" (my translation) by God. The overall picture is of God as a fierce warrior attacking Job, but the individual images sort of fade into each other, like frames of a movie fade into the next. So, how is Job smashed or dashed in piecess? Shattered? Slashed? Pierced? Compare Job's words in 6:4. What is it like to see your vital forces gushing forth from you?
E. Especially poignant for me is v. 14. We get the impression of a person constantly beset. He may try to gain some respite, but then God bursts in again and again. Look at the image in Amos 5:18-19--especially the one about running from a lion and meeting a bear. It is the notion of unexpected and unpredictable interruption that Job talks about. Compare this image to Job's words in 7:14-19. What is it like to be set upon in this way?
E. How do vv. 15-17 fit into the flow of vv. 12-14?
F. Is Job being disingenuous in these verses? What is he really trying to say? Are you tired of hearing Job continue to highlight his innocence and purity or do you admire people who, believing they are innocent and don't give up on their "integrity?"
16:18-22
"18 O earth, do not cover my blood; let my outcry find no resting place. 19 Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high. 20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, 21 that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God, as one does for a neighbor. 22 For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return."
A. Describe the change in Job's mental state between v. 17 and v. 18. What is to account for it?
B. The image of blood crying from the ground goes back to the story of Cain and Abel in Gen. 4. What is meant by the phrase "do not cover my blood"?
C. I see 16:19 as one of a series of reflections on hope, where Job's ideas gradually gain steam over the course of the Book of Job. That is, 9:33 expressed a longing for hope (an arbitrator), but Job quashed this idea before it developed. Then, in ch. 14, he allows himself to linger longer on the idea of hope before dimissing it once again. Now, in 16:19, hope seems to come into focus again. What is Job's hope here?
D. Who is the witness in heaven? Is it God? The testimony of Job's lips? A "third person" (that is, not Job and not God)? Is Job's creativity on hope at any way related to the vigorous and utterly hopeless language of earlier in the chapter?
E. Vv. 20-21 are difficult to understand. V. 22 seems to return to the theme we have seen many times--of Job's desire for or expectation of death. What do you feel about Job and his mental condition/spiritual awareness as chapter 16 closes?