Job 6:1; 7:1-21

Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just

6 Then Job answered: (Job 6:1, NRSV)

Job: My Suffering Is without End

7:1 “Do not human beings have a hard service on earth,

and are not their days like the days of a laborer?

2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow,

and like laborers who look for their wages,

3 so I am allotted months of emptiness,

and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

4 When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing until dawn.

5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;

my skin hardens, then breaks out again.

6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

and come to their end without hope.

7 “Remember that my life is a breath;

my eye will never again see good.

8 The eye that beholds me will see me no more;

while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.

9 As the cloud fades and vanishes,

so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;

10 they return no more to their houses,

nor do their places know them any more.

11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12 Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,

that you set a guard over me?

13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,’

14 then you scare me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

15 so that I would choose strangling

and death rather than this body.

16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever.

Let me alone, for my days are a breath.

17 What are human beings, that you make so much of them,

that you set your mind on them,

18 visit them every morning,

test them every moment?

19 Will you not look away from me for a while,

let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?

Why have you made me your target?

Why have I become a burden to you?

21 Why do you not pardon my transgression

and take away my iniquity?

For now I shall lie in the earth;

you will seek me, but I shall not be.” (Job 7:1-21, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here from August 30, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year Two):

Job’s reply to Eliphaz continues (as the scripture reference repetition of Job 6:1 indicates). As Job continues in chapter seven, he first refers to “human beings” (NRSV for Heb. wOnx$, ’ ^enôsh; ‘man’ AV/KJV, NKJV, NAS, NIV, NJPS 1985, 1999; ‘mortals’ TNIV), asking if they don’t “have a hard service on earth,” and whether “their days” are not “like the days of a laborer?” (Job. 7:1). But the answer, that one’s life and days are “Like a slave who longs for the shadow, / and like laborers who look for their wages” (v. 2), is referred to himself: “so I am allotted months of emptiness, / and nights of misery are apportioned to me” (v. 3). And personal pronoun references to himself (first person) continue in sixteen of the remaining twenty verses of the chapter. The reference to “those who go down to Sheol” who “do not come up” and “return no more to their houses” (vv. 9, 10), explains the statement that they will “see me no more,” for “I shall be gone” (v. 8). And the question about “human beings” (vv. 17-18 NRSV, TNIV for Heb. wOnx$, ’ ^enôsh; ‘man’ AV/KJV, NKJV, NAS, NIV, NJPS 1985, 1999), “What are human beings, that you make so much of them, / that you set your mind on them, / visit them every morning, / test them every moment? is in reference to himself as well, as the pronouns of verses 16 and 19 show. He has said, “Let me alone, for my days are breath” (v. 16b) just before, and asked “Will you not look away from me for a while, / let me alone until I swallow my spittle? just after the generalized questions of verses 17-18. Even so, Mayer Gruber says “the tone changes [in chap. 7], becoming more philosophical,” adding that “Job directs his words to God [rather than to Eliphaz]” (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, p. 1514 on Job 7:1-14). According to Gruber, “Job [here] sees all life, not only his own, as a struggle. He then says how hopeless is his suffering” (ibid.).

We might ask how, in the course of seven days and nights of silence following his disasters (2:13), or a little more, to allow for the news to reach his friends and their travel time, has there been time for “months of emptiness, / and nights of misery” (7:3). If the answer is that there has not been time for that, then perhaps, with Gruber, Job’s “I” does speak for humankind in general. But his personal complaint clearly continues here. He has sleepless nights (v. 4) and his flesh, “clothed with worms and dirt . . . hardens, then breaks out again” (v. 5). Would that process happen in a few days? Or some weeks? Gruber comments on the NJPS 1985, 1999 translation, “My flesh is covered with maggots and clods of earth; / My skin is broken and festering”: “Job’s point is that he is in a state of living death, and would prefer actual death” (on v. 5). One would think that his days would drag on and on, but Job describes the swiftness of his days: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; / and come to their end without hope” (v. 6). According to Leong Seow, “Job compares his life to a weaver’s shuttle that moves at great speed until the ‘tiqwah’ (the Heb. word meaning both thread [or ‘cord’ Josh. 2:18, 21, William L. Holladay, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 1977, 10^th corrected impression, s.v. hv!q4T9, tiqwāh] and hope [or ‘expectation,’ Holladay]) runs out” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001 on Job 7:6). With the imperative form in verse 7, “Remember . . .” (rkoz4, z^ekōr), Job “addresses God directly, reminding the deity that life is all too short” (Seow on v. 7). “The implication,” says Seow, “is that God should intervene before it is too late.”

We have noted the general reference of verses 9 and 10 (above), which in fact refer to Job’s own experience. He says he will not restrain himself but “will speak in the anguish of my spirit”; he “will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (v. 11b, c). Job asks if he is some kind of monster, “the Sea (My!, yām), or the Dragon (Nyn09T1, tannîn), / that you set a guard over me?” (v. 12). Gruber explains: “As in 3:8, the author is building upon Canaanite mythology, best known from the myths discovered at Ugarit, where the sea (actually deity Yam) and Dragon rebelled against the high god Baal. Job is asking God rhetorically if he is to be presumed extremely guilty like the sea or Dragon, for only that could explain his severe punishment” (on v. 12). Job says that he might expect “comfort” as he sleeps (v. 13), but “then you [God] scare me with dreams / and terrify me with visions / so that I would choose strangling / and death rather than this body” (vv. 14-15). This surely does not refer to the vision described in 4:12-21, even if Gruber is right in assigning it to Job rather than to Eliphaz (cf. comments for Sunday, August 24, 2008). Job “loathes” his life (v. 16). The generalized question of verses 17 and 18, applied to himself as noted above, is called “a parody of Ps. 8” by Leong Seow. “Acknowledging the insignificance of humanity, the psalmist praises God for giving humanity a particularly prominent place in creation. Job, however, ironically points to God’s undue focus on him despite his insignificance” (op. cit., on vv. 17-18; cf. Gruber, who agrees, on vv. 17-18). Job asks God, “Will you not look away from me for a while,” just for the briefest of moments, at least, “until I swallow my spittle?” (v. 19). “This seemingly indelicate expression,” says Gruber, “is one of many expressions in ancient Semitic languages describing the very briefest interval one can imagine as the time requisite for a bodily reflex, such as ‘the twinkling of an eye’” (op. cit., on v. 19). Of course they hadn’t heard of nanoseconds yet.

The reference to sin (v. 20) and indirect request for pardon (v. 21) with which Job closes this speech appears to contradict Job’s insistence elsewhere that he is innocent (6:29-30; 9:17-212; 13:23; 23:4-12; 24-25; 31:3; references by Gruber, on v. 21), but we should recognize that the reference to sin here is hypothetical. “If I sin,” he says to God, “what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?” (v. 20). There is no Hebrew word for “if,” here, but it is inferred from the construction. This verse is included as an example of the use of “a simple perfect [tense] . . . in the protasis [‘if’ or conditional clause] and apodosis [‘then’ or consequence clause]. . . . “if I have sinned (prop., well, now I have sinned!) What can I do unto thee?” (Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch, trans., A. E. Cowley, 2^nd Engl. ed., 1910, 18^th impression, 1985, sec. 159h [p. 494]). “Job insists,” says Gruber, in the reference given above, “that he is innocent; here, as also in 13:26; 14:16-27, he admits some measure of guilt; otherwise he could not ask God to pardon and forgive” (on v. 21). But here, at least, the hypothetical, that is, conditional sense, recognized in the transition by the use of “if” (v. 20, NRSV, and NJPS 1985, 1999 trans. used by Gruber), falls short of an absolute admission of guilt. But Gruber sees it as an “admission of less than total innocence on an absolute scale,” which “however (apart from Job’s being the most virtuous person on earth relative to other humans according to 1:1, 8; 2:3), is in consonance with the message of the dream vision [which Gruber assigns to Job, not Eliphaz] which Job affirms in 6:10; 9:2 (see also 4:12-21; 15:13-16; 25:2-6; 5:1)” (op. cit., p. 1515 on Job 7:21).

Acts 10:1-16

Peter and Cornelius

10:1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2 He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3 One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” 4 He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6 he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8 and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.

9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven. (Acts 10:1-16, NRSV)

On July 11, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 6, Year One), comments were repeated from August 30, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year Two), when they were repeated from July 6, 2005, (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 6, Year One); they are repeated again here with some editing and supplement.

Today’s reading is the first of three from Acts, chapter ten, which reports the preparation of Peter for ministry to Gentiles in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. “This key narrative,” says Christopher R. Matthews, “in which the inclusion of Gentiles is directed by God is essentially repeated in 11:1-18 and referred to in significant terms at 15:7-9” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Acts 10:1-48). “In Caesarea,” says Luke, “there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called” (Acts 10:1). “Here,” says Loveday Alexander, “we are introduced to a man with the good Roman name of Cornelius, belonging to the noncommissioned officer class who were the backbone of the Roman army (10:1). The ‘Italian Cohort’ is known from inscriptional evidence to have been in Syria before 69, though we do not have precise details about its stationing” (The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001, p. 1041 on Acts 10:1-8). Luke describes Cornelius as “a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God” (v. 2). “Cornelius was devout and feared God,” says Matthews, “i.e., worshipped him (see v. 22); although he had not adopted the Jewish religion (i.e., undergone circumcision), he practiced the characteristic acts of Jewish piety: almsgiving and prayer. The similar profile of the centurion in Lk. 7:1-10 shows that Luke is particularly interested in Gentiles who practice Jewish piety (v. 35)” (op. cit., on v. 2). Alexander says, “The term ‘devout’ (eusebēs [eujsebhvV, v. 2]) is one of a group of words Luke uses rather loosely, apparently to characterize Gentiles who were attracted to the religious practice of Judaism but shrank from the rigours of full conversion (generally called Godfearers to distinguish them from Gentile proselytes who had converted fully to Judaism)” (loc. cit.).

As the report continues, we are told that “one afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius’ ” (v. 3). Later, Peter will have a related vision (vv. 10-16). This is the second of the stories “of two visions, each confirming the other” noted by Alexander and cited in our comments on Acts 9:10-19a for Saturday, August 23, 2008. Cornelius has a vision in which an angel of God (Acts 10:3) directs him to send to Joppa for “a certain Simon who is called Peter” (v. 5). And Peter’s vision will prepare him to receive the messengers from Cornelius favorably (vv. 17-23a). When the angel appears to Cornelius, we are told, “he [Cornelius] stared at him [the angel] in terror and said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ He answered, ‘Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God’ ” (v. 4). The angel gives explicit directions: “Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside” (vv. 5-6).

Cornelius responds to the angel’s instructions. “When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa” (vv. 7-8). According to Matthews, the phrase “a devout soldier, suggests that those with Cornelius shared his piety” (op. cit., on v. 7).

Luke next turns to Peter’s vision, correlating the two visions. “About noon the next day,” says Luke, “as they [i.e., Cornelius’ messengers] were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray” (v. 9). We’re not told what season of the year it is, but we might wonder why Peter would go to the roof for prayer in the noonday sun. It’s not the heat but the hunger that Luke emphasizes. “He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance” (v. 10). At that point Peter sees “the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners” (v. 11). In this sheet “were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air” (v. 12). According to Beverly Roberts Gaventa, this is “a conventional classification of animals; see Gen. 1:24; 6:20; Lev. 11:46-47; Rom 1:23. A variety of animals is present; some but not all would be prohibited under Jewish dietary laws” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Acts 10:12). In the vision, a voice from heaven comes to the point, for Peter “heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat’ ” (v. 13). Peter’s response recognizes that some of the creatures belong to categories forbidden by the Levitical “kosher” food laws. As an observant Jew, he would not eat them. “By no means, Lord,” he says, “for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean” (v. 14). And the point is repeated. “The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane’ ” (v. 15). In fact, there is another repetition. “This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven” (v. 16). For Alexander, it is interesting that “the heavenly voice in Peter’s vision does not make Paul’s rather general philosophical point that ‘nothing is unclean in itself’ but assigns a more active role to God: the whole range of created food is clean not simply because God made it but because God has ‘cleansed’ it (v. 15)” (op. cit., p. 1041 on Acts 10:9-16).

The point within the larger narrative of Acts is God’s acceptance of Gentiles like Cornelius into the Christian Community. Later, Peter will emphasize the “cleansing aspect”:

And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them [the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house] the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. (Acts 15:8-9, NRSV)

John 7:1-13

The Unbelief of Jesus’ Brothers

7:1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. 2 Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; 4 for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 (For not even his brothers believed in him.) 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. 8 Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

Jesus at the Festival of Booths

10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. 11 The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” 12 And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, “He is a good man,” others were saying, “No, he is deceiving the crowd.” 13 Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews. (John 7:1-13, NRSV)

On March 10, 2007 (Saturday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year One), comments were repeated with revision and adjustment from February 3, 2006 (Friday in the week of the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), from February 26, 2005 (Saturday of the week of the Second Sunday in Lent, Year One), and from August 30, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year Two). The revised comments are repeated again here.

Chapter six of John has brought Jesus’ Galilean ministry to a climax, with a confession from Peter, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn. 6:68-69), that reminds us of Mark’s version of a similar confession from Peter (Mk. 8:29; cf. Mt. 16:16; Lk. 9:20). Briefly he remains in Galilee. “He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him” (Jn. 7:1). Because of the festival, his brothers–his earthly family members–urge him to go to Jerusalem. “Leave here and go to Judea,” they say, “so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world” (vv. 3-4). It was the time of the “festival of Booths” (Sukkoth), sometimes called Tabernacles (Jn. 7:2). A few years ago, when our seminary (HGST) was located in the Institute of Religion within the Texas Medical Center, we learned that just down the street, in a circle driveway of Baylor College of Medicine, there were trailers upon which were Booths constructed for Sukkoth (the Festival of Tabernacles) for the benefit of Jewish medical students. It was a reminder that now, as in Jesus’ times, this festival remains important for Jewish people. Although Jesus first indicates, in response to his brothers’ urging, that he will not go to Jerusalem, he soon goes anyway. To them he has said, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come” (vv. 6-8). So he remains for a short while in Galilee (v. 9).

But immediately, we are told, “But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret” (v. 10). According to Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, “Jesus Christ did, of set purpose, utter a falsehood” (cited by William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol. 1, rev. ed., 1956, p. 231, on Jn. 7:1-9). Barclay notes that others understand it to mean “that Jesus said he was not going up to the festival publicly but that did not preclude him from going privately .” Barclay adds, “Jesus is saying simply: ‘If I go up with you just now I will not get the opportunity I am looking for. The time is not opportune” (ibid., pp. 231-232). Barclay has explained:

There is one unique thing in this passage which we must note. According to the Revised Standard Version (verse 7) Jesus says: ‘My time is not yet come.” Jesus frequently spoke about his time or his hour. But here he uses a different word, and uses it for the only time. In the other passages (John 2:4; 7:30; 12:27) the word that Jesus or John uses is hōra [w{ra] which means the destined hour of God. Such a time or hour was not movable nor avoidable. It had to be accepted without argument and without alteration because it was the hour a which the plan of God had decided that something must happen. But in this passage the word is kairos [kairovV], which characteristically means an opportunity; that is, the best time to do something, the moment when circumstances are most suitable, the psychological moment. Jesus is not saying here that the destined hour of God has not come but something much simpler. He is saying that that was not the moment which would give him the chance for which he was waiting. (ibid., p. 231)

So Jesus soon leaves Galilee for Judea and Jerusalem (v. 10), and, remarkably, so far as the narrative in John’s Gospel is concerned, he remains in or near Jerusalem–Perea? Bethany and Ephraim (10:40-12:12)–not returning to Galilee until after the resurrection (chap. 21). For the time being (in today’s reading), Jesus went to the festival “not publicly but as it were in secret” (v. 10). People were looking for him at the festival, people including “the Jews,” and they were “saying, ‘Where is he’” (v. 11). The opinion of the crowds about Jesus was apparently divided. “And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man,’ others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd’” (v. 13). From verse 13, we learn that the expression “the Jews” (cf. v. 11) has a specialized meaning in John’s Gospel, referring to a rather small group of Jewish leaders who were the main opponents of Jesus and his teaching. Among the many people in the city for the festival, surely mostly all Jewish, “no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.” If “the Jews” in verse 10 refers to the same Jews as verse 13, we understand that Jesus hesitation to come to the festival was understandable. According to Obery M. Hendricks, “Jesus visits the festival undercover to escape detection and arrest. Compare Jesus’ secret journey with the public one in 12:12-15, and the reasons for both in v. 8 and 12:23” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Jn. 7:10-13).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net