1 "Then Job answered: 2 'Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation. 3 Bear with me, and I will speak; then after I have spoken, mock on. 4 As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals? Why should I not be impatient? 5 Look at me, and be appalled, and lay your hand upon your mouth. 6 When I think of it I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
A. Job's use of the word "consolation" in v.2 recalls Eliphaz's use of it in 15:11--"Are the consolations of God too small for you..?" Eliphaz meant something akin to the presence of God or the assurance of God's continual care, but Job will use that word differently. His "consolations" will be the following speech. After you read this chapter, describe the nature of Job's true "consolation."
B. Professor Edwin Good gives a better translation of v.3--"Lift me up" (rather than "bear with me.") The picture then created would be much more intimate than the NRSV. What would it suggest?
C. We have all heard of the "patience of Job (James 5:11)." What is the meaning of the rhetorical question in v.4? Does Job have reason to be "impatient?" Is that he word you would use to characterize him throughout the book?
D. The phrase "lay your hand upon your mouth" appears again in 40:4 and 29:9. It can mean either to be in awe or someone or something or simply to shut up. Look at the three passages and decide which you think is better.
21:7-16
7 "Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? 8 Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring before their eyes. 9 Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. 10 Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and never miscarries. 11 They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance around. 12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. 13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. 14 They say to God, 'Leave us alone! We do not desire to know your ways. 15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?' 16 Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement? The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me."
A. Job has earlier (9:22-24) spoken a few words on the wicked and the righteous but now he delves into the topic in detail. How does he "develop" it here, when compared with the earlier passage?
B. What tone does Job use in saying these words? In 21:5 he speaks about being "appalled" by something, probably what he is about to say. Do you see Job as "appalled" by what he says, or is he saying this cynically? Thus, how "hard" is it for Job to say this?
C. The content of this passage turns the world of wisdom theology on its head. Tell how this is the case.
D. Psalm 73:4-14 seems to come exactly out of the same mental world as Job 21:7-16. Read the Psalm. But, then there is Ps. 73:17, the Psalmist's "resolution" to the theological dilemma he posits. Does Job resolve his dilemma similarly?
E. One thing that has long puzzled me is how Job could so quickly have moved from the righteous businessman to the man of such great inner insight and despair. Does great distress do this for you or is the picture of Job's "transformation" somewhat unrealistic? When disaster befell Job, he says that "what he most feared" had come upon him (Job 3:25), suggesting that he had spent some time before the disaster thinking about what life might be like if things were drastically different. Do you think that Job, in his "pre-disaster" condition, had also constructed mental "essays" on the prosperity of the wicked, only that he did not mention them during his prosperous life?
21:17-26
17 "How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does calamity come upon them? How often does God distribute pains in his anger? 18 How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? 19 You say, 'God stores up their iniquity for their children.' Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it. 20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 21 For what do they care for their household after them, when the number of their months is cut off? 22 Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those that are on high? 23 One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease and secure, 24 his loins full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. 25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. 26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them."
A. Because of space considerations, we will conclude our consideration with this passage, even though the chapter goes on to v.33. What does Job wish would happen to the "wicked?"
B. The picture seems to change in vv.23-26. That is, these four verses seem to reflect the thought world of 9:22-24 more precisely. How so?
C. Do you agree with Job's assessment of the world?
Concluding Thought