Job 29:8-15 and widow's heart sing for joy and Job's self concept

If there is one thought we ought to dispense with right away, it is that Job was a humble man. Far from it. He may have tried to give the appearance of meek and accepting humility in his first words ("The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord"--1:21) and in his words challenging his wife in 2:9--("You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?"), but when the full weight of his distress sank in, he knew instinctively that it was all about him. As a result of his seeming fixation on himself for the next 30 or so chapters, many students of Job have been repelled by his self-centeredness and have considered pride his besetting sin. People who look at Job this way see his words in 42:1-6 as a sort of confession of his pride; he admits his limited vision and feels abased and abashed at the same time.

I don't think so. Well, I think that Job was doing something special in confessing in 42:5-6, which I speak about at some length in my Conversations with Job, but in general he was not proud; he was right. He had an inkling, which later turned out to be correct, that indeed it was God who was wrecking his day, and that his situation was really was about God singling him out for special torment through the intermediary, The Satan. Thus, when he firmly and unashamedly holds to his righteousness and criticizes God, I interpret this to be an expression of Job's conviction that he is right. God, as it turns out, will agree with Job, in verses that haven't gotten much press (42:7,8).

Job's Self-Justification in 29:8-15

When he actually gets around to defending his conduct before God, in words of unforgettable intensity and passion (29-31), he is indebted to Eliphaz for suggesting the theme of Job's "greatness," but Job develops the idea in much more detail. It is as if Eliphaz has said, in 4:3-4, 'Job, you did some pretty significant things,' and Job will respond, in 29, 'Let me tell you all about it.' How does Job remember the good old days?

Let's hear the entire eight verses, and then I will comment on a few of them.

"8 the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose up and stood; 9 the nobles refrained from talking, and laid their hands on their mouths; 10 the voices of princes were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths. 11 When the ear heard, it commended me, and when the eye saw, it approved; 12 because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper. 13 The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. 15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame" (Job 29:8-15 NRSV).

Three Comments on the Text

I only have space to focus on three items from this litany of self-commendation. First, Job takes over some of Eliphaz's language from 4:2-4 here. The aged "rose up" and "stood." The verb translated "rose up" is kum, which Eliphaz uses in 4:3 to commend Job's ability to make others "rise up" through his words. So, Job is saying something to this effect, 'Come to think of it, Eliphaz, they did rise up, didn't they? And, not just the little people, but the big people. I am so big that all rose when I was around.' Commentators have remarked again on the awkward use of qum here, without a conjuction dividing it from "stand." This asyndetic construction is, as Professor Good says, "syntactically unusual." Job also takes over the words "refrained from talking" in v.9, as I have shown in two previous essays (here and here).*

[*Another interesting word used by Job in 29:8, 10, which isn't however used by Eliphaz, is the Hebrew haba, meaning "withdraw." The young men withdrew when Job arrived, and the princes didn't withdraw spatially from Job but their voices "withdrew." That is, Job sucked all the air our of the room; he occupied not only central position in it but the entire room].

Second, notice the reactions of OTHERS to Job's "ministry" of justice. Of course, the reaction of the others is mediated through Job's memory, but it should be given its due, especially when Eliphaz's words are consistent with Job's memory. The words are memorable. Job stimulated the senses and he saved the various groups recognized for their vulnerability. We have appeals to hearing (v.9,10,11), and touch (v.9) and seeing (v.11) and even tasting (v.10). And, the groups whom Job delivered were the threee most vulnerable groups in ancient Israel (or any other time): the poor (v.12), the orphan (v.12) and the widow (v.13). Job uses a particularly arresting word in v.13 to emphasize how he helped widows. He made their hearts "sing for joy." The Hebrew verb is ranan, which is the verbal form of the noun used by Job in his opening speech in 3:7 (rannanah), to emphasize the quality (joy) that has been taken away from him. In his wistful remembrance, he recalls the way that he gave others joy.

Finally, as we get to the end of the passage (vv.14-15), first person verbs and pronouns proliferate. He clothed himself with righteousness. The verb for clothed is, like the verb for fear in 3:25, used intensively--the verb and its corresponding noun are used. Thus, "I dressed myself with clothes of righteousness" (like "I feared a great fear" in 3:25). He was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. As I mentioned at the end of the previous essay, v.15 is syntactically unusual. It is best translated, "I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame was I." The "I" functions as a sort of sandwich for the "other." The "I" is in the position of prominence in the sentence. Job has been responsible for others' health. Make no mistake about it. It is Job who has done it. It IS all about Job.

Conclusion

Let's take a show of hands. Yep, the "I's" have it.