ChristadelphianBooksOnline
David Baird
The Education of Job

Chapters 16, 17 - The Second Cycle of Speeches - Job

	16:1-5	Job reproves his comforters
	16:6-17	Despondency - God's treatment of Job
	16:18-21	Job's confidence
	16:22-17:2	Despondency - Humiliating death awaits
	17:3-9	Appeal to God as man does not care
	17:10-16	Despondency - His friend's insensitivity as death approaches

Job has the upper hand as far as the debate is concerned. He knows that Eliphaz is repeating himself in a futile attempt to be profound. His reply to Eliphaz is characterised by a direct rebuttal of Eliphaz as he sees no difficulty in maintaining his integrity in the face of Eliphaz's assertions, and despondency as he foresees an ignominious death in the company of mockers.

His language, while indignant, is more controlled, although he lapses into an outburst concerning God that is inappropriate and possibly wrong (16:9-14). Despite this, Job doggedly clings to two facts:

1. He is not guilty of any grave fault; and

2. God can do what He pleases, even though Job doesn't understand why God treats him the way He does.

16:1-5 Job reproves his comforters

In 16:2-5 Job hurls back at Eliphaz his taunts of 15:2-6. He strongly contradicts the intent and force of Eliphaz's speech and begins by homing in on one of his final statements. In 15:35 Eliphaz asserted that the wicked conceive mischief (amal). "That's it," exclaims Job, "I have heard many such things - these empty platitudes that irritate." We can feel his indignation rising as he bemoans, "Miserable (amal) comforters are ye all." Literally he calls them "comforters of trouble." Instead of increasing comfort they increase trouble.

If only they would hold their peace (13:5). He wearily asks, "Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?" (16:3 NIV). There must be a limit. He has answered their arguments and if they have nothing of value to add they should keep silent.

How would it be if the roles were reversed? Job addresses this fascinating concept in 16:4. Job could, he declares, do exactly what they are doing. He could overwhelm them with sermons and shake his head at them (JB). Alternatively, he could strengthen them with his mouth (peh - see comment 15:6) and the "comfort, solace" (Ges, RSV, NKJV etc) of his lips (sapa - see comment 15:6) would relieve their grief.

Eliphaz can babble on about Job being self-condemned by his lips and mouth (15:6), but Job turns the tables by saying if he was Eliphaz he would use his lips and mouth to encourage and build. True, the words of Eliphaz were crafted, even fine speeches (NIV), but they were of no positive value to Job.

16:6-17 Despondency - God's treatment of Job

Perhaps Job could stop talking. No, even in silence the pain is unrelieved (16:6). After counterpunching effectively, Job now droops into despondency. Why has God treated him this way? Job is so tired and lonely (16:7). He believes God has worn him out and devastated his entire household. He craves the companionship of his family and friends (19:13-17).

He is a pitiable sight. A disfigured, emaciated little man. A man who is regarded as a witness to God's punishment. A man shunned (16:8), who feels the hostility of God. Eliphaz accused Job with being hostile to God (15:13). Job replies that God is hostile to him (16:9-14).

In verse 9 Job pictures God tearing him in anger. He visualises God as a wild beast gnashing his teeth and fixing his pitiless gaze on the hapless Job. He imagines that God hates (satam - "bear a grudge, cherish animosity" BDB) him and is his enemy (tsar - "adversary" with reference to "harassment and torment engendered by an enemy" TWOT).

And the treatment he has received at the hand of God has resulted in a corresponding attitude from his fellow men towards him (16:10). They harassed and tormented him. As verse 10 reveals they:

gaped (pa'ar) at him with their mouth;
smote him reproachfully (herpa) on the cheek (possibly figurative language referring to insults - I doubt whether anybody would touch the hideously afflicted Job, let alone strike him); and
united together against him for a hostile purpose i.e. in a conspiracy (Delitzsch).

Just as Jesus who, because they considered him "smitten of God" (Isa 53:4), was:

gaped (pasa from same root as pa'ar) upon (Psa 22:13);
smitten on the cheek (Luke 22:64);
a reproach (herpa) among his brethren (Psa 69:7, 9); and
the subject of a conspiracy that led to his death (Matt 26:4; John 11:53).

The types are beautiful to behold but, in this instance, Job's reaction was not that of the Son of God's. Jesus knowingly, willingly and without complaint, accepted the will of God (Matt 26:42). Job, however, switches to a consideration of God, his chief harasser.

God had handed Job over to the ungodly and cast him to the wicked (rasha - "criminal" TWOT). Rasha is used by Eliphaz in 15:20. Job's retort is simple, "I am not a criminal. Those to whom God has cast me are the criminals." This does not apply exclusively to Job's three friends. The ungodly and the wicked probably refers to the town hoodlums who took great delight in mocking this once great man (30:1-15).

The cruelty of it all. Job feels he has been absolutely pulverised by God. Everything was fine with Job "but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me" (16:12). The image is that of a powerful wrestler who pounces on his unsuspecting victim and piledrives him head first into the ground.

Verse 13 introduces another image. God is portrayed as a merciless commandant who positions his archers (see 6:4) around Job to pierce his kidneys (AV "reins") and gall. God's archers would attack the most sensitive parts of the body and the very "seat of the emotions" (Soncino).

The attack is unceasing - "He breaks me with break upon break" (Green), "He wounds me with wound upon wound" (Andersen) or transliterated paras peres peres. The terms are used essentially in a military sense and allude to God's punitive activity as well as the malicious, destructive activity of a conquering army breaching the walls of a city. The inference is not just to make a breach in the wall, moreso to destroy the wall (Neh 4:3; Ecc 3:3). Job sees God pounding and pounding and pounding at him. There is no respite. God is determined to destroy him, "bearing down on [him] like a warrior" (16:14 JB).

Job's description of God's attack is savage. He has likened God to a ferocious beast (16:9), a traitor (16:11), a wrestler (16:12), a malevolent leader of a troop of archers (16:13) and a remorseless warrior (16:14). Why is God like this to Job? He hasn't done anything wrong. His prayer is pure. He has not fought back. No wonder Job is despondent.

The vision of 16:15-16 is pitiful. Job is suffering and severely humiliated. He sits draped in sackcloth, the lowliest of garments, his head ("horn" AV - most translators interpret as "brow"), the crown of his body, covered in dust, his face reddened with weeping, and deep shadows, shadows of death, around his eyes. Surely, God must show him compassion. He must, feels Job, because, despite the terrible condition he is in, his hands have been free from violence and his prayer is pure (16:17). He never, as Bildad accused (8:6), claimed overall purity but he always approached God with a pure heart and a clear conscience.

Job's expressions are very similar to those of Isaiah 53:9 - "he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth" - but his submission to his suffering was not without protest (9:17, 10:7) nor was it entirely undeserved. Like his antitype, he was mortal. Unlike his antitype, he was a sinner.

16:18-21 Job's confidence

Job suddenly lifts himself out of his despondency with a short burst of hope. The inference of his appeals to the earth and heaven is that he may survive his ordeal or, at least, his death will not be in vain. His emotions break out as he exclaims, "O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no peace" (16:18). Blood that is not covered up cries for vengeance - a concept that begins way back in Genesis 4:10 (see also Isa 26:21 and Ezek 24:6-8). In other words, "I do not want the evidence of my sufferings to be hidden."

Job believes his blood, like Abel's, is that of an innocent man and God will eventually avenge the innocent blood that has been shed. Such a passion seems totally out of context. Job is back on the emotional rollercoaster his suffering has created. He has just finished calling God to task for the wretchedness of his existence, even likening God to a remorseless warrior whose sole intention is Job's destruction, and later moves into a forthright prediction of his imminent death (16:22). This beam of light in verse 18 seems very much out of place.

Furthermore, verse 19 hints at a confidence that builds on the preceding verse. Not only is there the prospect of God avenging Job's innocent blood, Job has a witness in heaven. No ifs or maybes, he has a witness and "he that vouches for me is on high" (RSV). Where is the wrestler trying to break his neck (16:12) or the traitor who turned Job over to his enemies (16:11)? Job has momentarily lifted himself out of his gloom. His friends may scorn him but he has never sought for help from them. His plea has been to heaven. His trust has always been in God (16:20).

Verse 21 is Hebraically difficult. Some interpreters say that Job is crying out for a mediator (Tennant - 9:33), others that Job is appealing direct to God (Styles). I believe Job is appealing direct to God as He is the highest authority. It is an amazing injection of faith as Job approaches the One who has cruelly afflicted him and appeals to Him as the God of justice and mercy. God is Job's friend who can save him as well as being his perceived enemy. Job is fleeing from God to God!

16:22-17:2 Despondency - Humiliating death awaits

But, such conviction is short-lived as he plunges into despondency. His number is coming up. He will soon take the road of no return (16:22). No return? Such is his depression that Job unwittingly endorses the comment of Eliphaz in 15:22 - "[the wicked] does not believe he will return from darkness" (NKJV). He also contradicts his expressed hope of the resurrection (14:13). Job has returned to the nadir of 7:9-10 and 10:10-22.

Chapter 17

Eliphaz told Job that he loosed his anger (ruah) on God with his rash speaking (15:13). Such fire is waning. Job's life essence (ruah - AV "breath") is broken. His days are cut short and now the grave awaits him (17:1). What does he have? The company of mockers who only provoke him (17:2).

17:3-9 Appeal to God as man does not care

Again Job stirs himself up to appeal to God. God is the only one who can redeem Job from God's wrath. Job has jumped back to the sentiments of 16:18-21. Nobody else can help him because God has closed their minds to understanding (17:4 NIV). Because God has deprived Job's friends of the ability to understand therefore God "will not let them triumph" (17:4 NIV). Such a statement borders on the absurd. Job is saying that God has manipulated his friend's comprehension and will punish them as a result. If this comment was meant to sting it definitely found its mark because Bildad, early in his next speech, reacts with irritation (18:3).

Verse 5 is another that evokes a variety of translations. It seems that Job is maintaining his denunciation of his comforters. Of all the variations suggested (Gibson claims the verse is untranslatable), that offered by Delitzsch and supported by Gibson makes the most sense to me:

"He who giveth his friends for spoil,
The eyes of his children shall languish."

Those who would desert their friends, instead of shielding them, and delivers them up to whomsoever will ultimately suffer in the eyes of his children. Their shame, guilt, suffering, whatever, will be manifest. At least Job's children never witnessed the humiliation of their father. But Job was certain his friend's children would not be spared this indignity.

17:6-9 is much smoother sailing as Job provides further description of his pitiable state before rising to an expression of hope. His extreme illness has:

Made him a byword among the people;
Made him an object of contempt as people spit in his face (17:6 NKJV);
Diminished his eyesight (probably through excessive weeping - Psa 6:6-8);
Weakened his "whole frame" (yeshurim only found here - "members" AV, "limbs" JB, CompB);
Perplexed upright men who cannot understand why a good man like Job is so afflicted (Is this a poke at his friends who have responded without sympathy nor ongoing recognition of Job's goodness?); and
Aroused innocent people (e.g. Job) against the prosperity of the godless (Another jab at Eliphaz - "the company of the godless will be barren" 15:34 NIV. Wrong, says Job, they prosper to the displeasure, maybe even envy, of the godly.).

What can Job do? He hangs onto his conviction of being right. He is unmoved as he is convinced he is on the right course. In this short burst of brightness he proclaims, "He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger" (17:9). This is a noble utterance in the midst of overwhelming gloom. It is another step in Job's education that leads up to his wonderful words in chapter 19.

But it is shortlived as he looks at his friends. Their presence reinforces all Job's negativity. He reverts to despondency.

17:10-16 Despondency - His friend's insensitivity as death approaches

Job throws out a scornful challenge to his friends, "Come on, you can renew the debate but I won't find a wise man among you" (17:10). Anyway, what's the point? In three sharp phrases, Job sums up his condition: "My days have passed, my plans are shattered and so are the desires of my heart" (17:11 NIV). He is revisiting the feelings expressed in 16:16 and 17:7.

He is not helped by his friends. According to them all Job has to do is repent and light will chase away the darkness. They preach day when, to Job, everything is night (17:12). They reverse the truth (Isa 5:20) so what value do they add?

All Job looks forward to is the grave and making his bed in darkness. In a retreat to the pessimism of 9:31, Job declares, "I tell the tomb (shahat - AV "corruption" while supported by many versions is discredited by Gesenius and TWOT), 'You are my father', and call the worm (see 7:5 - "My flesh is clothed with worms"), my mother and sister" (17:14 JB). He has accepted his fate as one accepts their relatives no matter how delightful or loathsome they may be!

So then, where is his hope (17:15)? Where is his divine blessing? Where is the strengthening of his hands (17:9)? He predicts they will all go to the grave with him. They will sink with him in the dust (17:16).

Job's rollercoaster ride has stopped and he is back at the bottom. Confronting him is the academic Bildad who is visibly upset by the words of Job.