God's Problem (24 page)
Authors: Bart D. Ehrman
The Overall Structure of the Poetic Dialogues
The poetic dialogues are set up as a kind of back-and-forth between Job and his three “friends.” Job makes a statement and one of his friends replies; Job responds and the second friend replies; Job responds again and then the third friend replies. This sequence happens three times, so that there are three cycles of speeches. The third cycle, however, has become muddled, possibly in the copying of the book over the ages: one of the friend’s (Bildad’s) comments are inordinately short in the third go-around (only five verses); another friend’s (Zophar’s) comments are missing this time; and Job’s response at one point appears to take the position that his friends had been advocating and that he had been opposing in the rest of the book (chapter 27). Scholars typically think that something has gone awry in the transmission of the dialogues at this point.
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But the rest of the structure is clear. After the friends have had their say, a fourth figure appears; this is a young man named Elihu who is said to be dissatisfied with the strength of the case laid out by the other three. Elihu tries to state the case more forcefully: Job is suffering because of his sins. This restatement appears to be no more convincing than anything the others have said, but before Job can reply, God himself appears, wows Job into submission by his overpowering presence, and informs him that he, Job, has no right to challenge the workings of the one who created the universe and all that is in it. Job repents of his desire to understand and grovels in the dirt before the awe-inspiring challenge of the Almighty. And that’s where the poetic dialogues end.
Job and His Friends
The poetic section begins with Job, out of his misery, cursing the day he was born and wishing that he had died at birth:
After this Job opened his mouth and
cursed the day of his birth. Job said:
“Let the day perish in which I was
born,
and the night that said
‘A man-child is conceived.’…
“Why did I not die at birth,
come forth from the womb and
expire?
Why were there knees to receive
me,
or breasts for me to suck?…
Or why was I not buried like a
stillborn child,
like an infant that never sees the
light?” (Job 3:1–3, 11–12, 16)
Eliphaz is the first friend to respond, and his response sets the tone for what all the friends will say. In their opinion, Job has received what was coming to him. God does not, they claim (wrongly, as readers of the prologue know), punish the innocent but only the guilty.
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
“If one ventures a word with you,
will you be offended?
But who can keep from
speaking?…
“Think now, who that was
innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut
off?
As I have seen, those who plow
iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger
they are consumed.” (Job 4:1–2, 7–9)
All three friends will have similar things to say throughout the many chapters of their speeches. Job is guilty, he should repent, and if he does so, God will relent and return him to his favor. If he refuses, he is simply showing his recalcitrance and willfulness before the God who punishes those who deserve it. (These friends seem well versed in the views of the Israelite prophets we considered in chapters 2 and 3.) And so Bildad, for example, insists that God is just and seeks Job’s repentance.
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
“How long will you say these
things,
and the words of your mouth
be a great wind?
Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert
the right?
If your children sinned against
him,
he delivered them into the
power of their
transgression.
If you will seek God
and make supplication to the
Almighty,
if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself
for you
and restore to you your rightful
place.
Though your beginning was
small,
your latter days will be very
great.” (Job 8:1–7)
Zophar too thinks that Job’s protestations of innocence are completely misguided and an affront to God. If Job is suffering, it is because he is guilty and is getting his due; in fact, he deserves far worse (one wonders what could be worse, if the folktale is any guide).
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
“Should a multitude of words go
unanswered,
and should one full of talk be
vindicated?
Should your babble put others to
silence,
and when you mock, shall no
one shame you?
For you say, ‘My conduct is
pure,
and I am clean in God’s sight.’
But O that God would speak,
and open his lips to you,
and that he would tell you the
secrets of wisdom!
For wisdom is many-sided.
Know then that God exacts of you
less than your guilt
deserves.” (Job 11:1–6)
And this is what Job’s
friends
are saying! Sometimes they bar no holds in accusing Job, wrongly, of great sin before God, as when Eliphaz later declares:
“Is it for your piety that he
reproves you,
and enters into judgment with
you?
Is not your wickedness great?
There is no end to your
iniquities.
For you have…stripped the naked of their
clothing.
You have given no water to the
weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread
from the hungry….
“You have sent widows away
empty-handed,
and the arms of the orphans you
have crushed.
Therefore snares are around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms
you.” (Job 22:4–7, 9–10)
The word
therefore
in the final couplet is especially important. It is
because
of Job’s impious life and unjust treatment of others that he is suffering, and for no other reason.
For Job, it is this charge itself that is unjust. He has done nothing to deserve his fate, and to maintain his personal integrity he has to insist on his own innocence. To do otherwise would be to lie to himself, the world, and God. He cannot repent of sins he has never committed and pretend that his suffering is deserved when in fact he has done nothing wrong. As he repeatedly tells his friends, he knows full well what sin looks like—or, rather, tastes like—and he would know if he had done anything to stray from the paths of godliness:
