Job 22:1-4, 21-23:7

Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great

22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2 “Can a mortal be of use to God?

Can even the wisest be of service to him?

3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous,

or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you,

and enters into judgment with you? (Job 22:1-4, NRSV)

21 “Agree with God, and be at peace;

In this way good will come to you.

22 Receive instruction from his mouth,

And lay up his words in your heart.

23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored,

if you remove unrighteousness from your tents,

24 if you treat gold like dust,

and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent-bed,

25 and if the Almighty is your gold

and your precious silver,

26 then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,

and lift up your face to God.

27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you,

and you will pay your vows.

28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

29 When others are humiliated, you say it is pride;

for he saves the humble.

30 He will deliver even those who are guilty;

they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”

Job Replies: My Complaint Is Bitter

23:1 Then Job answered:

2 “Today also my complaint is bitter;

his hand is heavy despite my groaning.

3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him,

that I might come even to his dwelling!

4 I would lay my case before him,

and fill my mouth with arguments.

5 I would learn what he would answer me,

and understand what he would say to me.

6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?

No; but he would give heed to me.

7 There an upright person could reason with him,

and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. (Job 22:21-23:7, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here from September 9, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 31, Year Two) with some editing and supplement:

As noted yesterday, today’s reading begins with part of Eliphaz’s third speech (Job 22:1-4, 21-30) and includes some of Job’s response (23:1-7). Eliphaz’s first question, “Can a mortal be of use to God? / Can even the wisest be of service to him?” (22:2) appears to echo Job’s earlier question, “how can a mortal be just before God?” (9:2). Eliphaz’s next question returns the focus from usefulness to righteousness (the point of Job’s earlier question): “Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, / or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?” (22:3). By now, it is clear that the questions are rhetorical, as Eliphaz continues. “Is it for your piety that he reproves you, / and enters into judgment with you?” (v. 4). Mayer Gruber identifies a connection with a different point in Job’s earlier speeches. He says, Eliphaz refers here [Job 22:2-4] to Job’s begging in 10:2; 13:23 that God tell him just where he has gone wrong so as to deserve the loss of children, wealth, and health, and insists that God is unbiased (The Jewish Study Bible, 2001, p. 1533 on Job 22:2-4).

In the comments of Eliphaz that are passed over in the reading (vv. 5-22), Job’s previous arguments are misrepresented. For the statement, “The powerful possess the land, / and the favored live in it” (v. 8 NRSV), another translation is “The land belongs to the strong; / The privileged occupy it” (NJPS 1985, 1999). Gruber offers his own translation: “The man of violence owns the earth, and the man who is an object of favoritism is enthroned therein,” and comments: The ancient Dead Sea Scroll Aramaic translation of Job recovered from Qumran Cave 11 anticipated modern scholarship in understanding this verse as Eliphaz’s quoting Job’s viewpoint as expressed in 9:24; 15:19” (ibid.). According to Leong Seow, Eliphaz charges Job with “crimes perpetrated by the rich: avarice and callousness to the needs of the poor” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on vv. 6-9). “Eliphaz, says Seow “appears to be distorting the arguments of Job, who had in fact only affirmed God’s ability to see and to know what is on earth (cf. 7:19-20; 14:3; 16:9),” whereas Eliphaz attributes to Job “the claim that God is too far removed to know what is happening on earth,” a claim that “is elsewhere are attributed to the wicked (Ps. 10:4, 11, 13; Ezek. 8:12)” (ibid., on vv. 12-14).

Of verses 17-18, Seow says, “Job’s characterization of the attitude of the wicked (21:14-16) is taken out of context and represented as Job’s own perspective” (ibid., on vv. 17-18). Citing Rashi, Ibn Ezra and “some modern interpreters,” Gruber says,

Since in the end Job’s friends are made to apologize to Job for blaming him for his own suffering, and since in v. 13a Eliphaz explicitly says, ‘You say . . . ,’ it is possible to see in vv. 12, 13b-14 and 8 a speech that Eliphaz puts into Job’s mouth so that he can rebut it in vv. 15-30. Of course, Job has said no such thing. This is another indication that there is no true dialogue here, and Job’s accusations that his ‘friends’ are not listening to him are true. (op. cit., on vv. 11-14).

Eliphaz advises Job to “agree with God, and be at peace; / in this way good will come to you” (v. 21). He should “receive instruction from his mouth, / and lay up his words in your heart” (v. 22). According to Eliphaz, if Job will “return to the Almighty,” he “will be restored” (v. 23a). Returning to the Almighty, says Eliphaz, means turning from other things: “if you remove unrighteousness from your tents, if you treat gold like dust, / and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent-bed, / and if the Almighty is your gold / and your precious silver, / then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, / and lift up your face to God” (vv. 23b-26). Seow calls attention to “a pun at play here involving the words for gold (‘batser’ [rc@B@, betser, rc@B!, bātser ‘in pause’] and like the stones (‘betsur’ [rUcB4, b^etsûr {rUcK4, k^etsûr in many mss., BHS apparatus}] ) on the one hand, and dust (‘ ‘apar’ [rp!f!, ‘āfār] ) and Ophir (‘ ’opir’ [ryp9Ox, ’ôf îr] ) on the other” (op. cit., on v. 24). It’s not the possession of gold and silver that Eliphaz counts as unrighteousness, but trust in them. The Almighty, he says, should be the object of Job’s trust. If Job fulfills these conditions, he will delight in the Almighty, his gold and silver (v. 26). “You [Job] will pray to him [God],” says Eliphaz, and he will hear you, / and you will pay your vows” (v. 27). “Job,” adds Seow, “is expected [admonished?] to treat his wealth as valueless and to replace it with piety” (ibid.). If Job will follow the advice of Eliphaz, he is told, “You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, / and light will shine on your ways” (v. 28). Robert L. Alden comments on Eliphaz’s “list of assured blessings,” if Job would only repent. “These wonderful blessings are too good to be true, but it was the Temanite’s [Eliphaz’s] habit to characterize Job a worse sinner than he was and to inflate the advantages of repentance beyond what is realistic” (Job, The New American Commentary, p. 238 on Job 22:28). Here Eliphas says that if Job will follow his advice, he will again be honored as a judge and a decision maker. In Job’s later review of his former good life (chap. 29), he recalls being so honored. “When I went out to the gate of the city, / when I took my seat in the square, / the young men saw me and withdrew, / and the aged rose up and stood; / the nobles refrained from talking, and laid their hands on their mouths; / the voices of princes were hushed, / and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths” (29:7-10).

Eliphaz accuses Job of being overly judgmental–or perhaps agreeing with his point of view. “When others are humiliated, you say it is pride; / for he [i.e., presumably God] saves the humble” (22:29). If Job repents, as Eliphaz advises, God will deliver him, for, “he will deliver even those who are guilty; / they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands” (v. 30). His repentance and return to righteousness will affect others. Alden notes that some wish to emend the text of verse 30:

Because one expects God to ‘deliver’ the ‘innocent’ (not the ‘noninnocent’), some have ignored the negative particle [yx9, ’ î] (LXX, Vulgate, REB, GNB) or emended it to read ‘man’ (RSV), ‘God,’ or ‘whomsoever.’ But the text makes sense as it stands. It is the repentant guilty that God ‘will deliver.’ And that deliverance will occur thorough the instrumentality of ‘your hands.’ How these words must have haunted Eliphaz when God had Job pray for him and his friends (42:7-10).” (op. cit., on v. 30).

Seow comments on Job’s response. “Job,” he says, “seems to ignore all that ‘Eliphaz has said and delves, instead, into his own thoughts” (on 23:1-24:7). Gruber also notes that, “In this speech Job does not even address Eliphaz. He complains about God (23:2-17), he accuses God of not intervening to prevent injustice (24:1-12); and he provides numerous examples of the material success of the unjust, and he wishes that God would punish the wicked. He concludes his speech emphatically with 24:25. “Surely no one can confute” (op. cit., p. 1534 on Job 23:1-24:25). For “Surely no one can confute me” (Job 24:25a NJPS 1985, 1999) the NRSV has, “If it is not so, who will prove me a liar . . . ?” (24:25a).

But today’s reading merely introduces this long speech. When Eliphaz becomes silent, Job says, “Today also my complaint is bitter [‘bitter’ is based on the Syriac, Vulgate and Targum versions, for ‘rebellious’ NRSV note f ]; his hand [i.e. God’s hand] is heavy despite my groaning” (Job 23:2). According to Seow, “my complaint is bitter reflects the reading of some ancient textual witnesses (cf. also7:11). The Heb. text, however, suggests that Job’s complaint is ‘contentious’ or, perhaps, ‘defiant.’ The latter reading is probably correct, although the choice of the word here may reflect both defiance and bitterness” (op. cit., on 23:2). Job would like to know where he might find God: “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, / that I might come even to his dwelling!” (v. 3). If this desire were fulfilled, says Job, “I would lay my case before him, / and fill my mouth with arguments” (v. 4). Job wants desperately an answer from God. “I would learn what he would answer me, / and understand what he would say to me” (v. 5). Job asks, “Would he [God] contend with me in the greatness of his power?” asks Job (v. 6a). Job believes that if he were to get a hearing with God, God would not contend with him, but rather, “he would give heed to me” (v. 6b). If Job were to gain such a hearing, “there,” he says, “an upright person could reason with him, / and I should be acquitted forever by my judge” (v. 7). According to Gruber, “The theme is again forensic. Job is insisting that God is hiding. This picks up on a major theological theme of the Bible, especially in Psalms, that God sometimes hides His face from individuals, allowing them to be punished unjustly (e.g. Job 13:24; Ps. 13:2)” (on 23:2-8).

Acts 13:26-43

26 “My brothers, you descendants of Abraham’s family, and others who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him. 28 Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. 29 When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead; 31 and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

‘You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.’

34 As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

‘I will give you the holy promises made to David.’

35 Therefore he has also said in another psalm,

‘You will not let your Holy One experience corruption.’

36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died, was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption; 37 but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; 39 by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you:

41 ‘Look, you scoffers!

Be amazed and perish,

for in your days I am doing a work,

a work that you will never believe, even if someone tells you.’ “

42 As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people urged them to speak about these things again the next sabbath. 43 When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. (Acts 13:26-43, NRSV)

On July 21, 2007 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 13, Year One), comments were repeated with editing and supplement from September 9, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 31, Year Two), when they were repeated from July 16, 2005 (Saturday of the week of the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Year One). The revised comments are repeated again here.

Yesterday’s reading included the portion of Paul’s sermon in Pisidia of Antioch that briefly reviewed Israel’s history. In today’s reading he again addresses “My brothers, you descendants of Abraham’s family, and others who fear God” (Acts 13:26), and continues in two parts (1) a review of the events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and (2) a series of Old Testament quotations which he interprets as prophecies about Jesus. He first blames “the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders” for not understanding the prophets and so for fulfilling the prophecies “by condemning him” (v. 27); without cause for “a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed” (v. 28). According to G. W. H. Lampe, “Luke here suggests that the Jews, and not only Pilate, recognized Jesus to be innocent. He means that they could not find a genuine charge on which to accuse him” (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, 2001, p. 905, sec. 789 g, on Acts 13:27). “When they had carried out everything that was written about him,” says Paul, “they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb” (v. 29). Christopher R. Matthews notes a similar reference to Jesus’ cross as a “tree” in Acts 5:30 (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Acts 13:29). Although Jesus was buried, God raised him from the dead” (v. 30). Lampe says that Luke’s version of Paul’s narrative here “is extremely compressed in order to avoid lengthy repetition of what the reader has been told earlier in the book and in the Gospel. This has affected the narrative of the burial,” says Lampe, “which is ascribed to the Jews, Joseph of Arimathea not being mentioned” (op. cit., on v. 29; cf. Lk. 23:50-54). But Paul mentions Jesus’ appearances to witnesses (v.31; cf. 1:8).

In the second part Paul proclaims “the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus (vv. 32-33a). In support of this, he cites Psalm 2:7 (v. 33), Isaiah 55:3 (v. 34), Psalm 16:10 (v. 35), interpreted, respectively, as “raising Jesus,” that is, “bringing him on the scene” (Matthews, on v. 33), “raising him from the dead” (v. 34), and not experiencing corruption (v. 37). “Through this man [Jesus],” says Paul, “forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you” (v. 38), and he adds that “everyone who believes is set free from all these sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses” (v. 39). In the final appeal, he warns them not to ignore the prophets’ warnings, “Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you” (v. 40), and, as an example, he cites Habakkuk: “Look, you scoffers! / Be amazed and perish, / for in your days I am doing a work, / a work that you will never believe, / even if someone tells you” (v. 41, citing Hab. 1:5). Paul and Barnabas were invited back “to speak about these things again the next sabbath” (v. 42) and many responded favorably to their ministry. “When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God” (v. 43).

John 10:1-18

Jesus the Good Shepherd

10:1 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” (John 10:1-18, NRSV)

On March 28, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year One), comments were combined with revision and adaptation from January 3, 2005, two years ago (Monday of the week of the First Sunday after Christmas, with the reference listed for January 3, Year One), from March 16, 2005 (Wednesday of the week of the Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year One) that were used and adapted on February 15, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), from February 15, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), and from January 3, 2007, again with the reference listed for January 3, Year One). The combined comments are repeated here:

In his blessing of Joseph's sons, Jacob refers to “the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day” (Gen. 48:15). We all know how David's “Shepherd Psalm” begins, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Ps. 23:1). In Moses' concern about who would lead Israel when he is gone, he asks God to appoint a leader “who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead then out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep without a shepherd” (Num. 27:17), before the LORD names Joshua (v. 18). But the shepherd metaphor can be turned against bad shepherds. A passage in Jeremiah pronounces severe judgment on the “shepherds,” the “lords of the flock” (Jer. 25:34-37). This includes the rulers of many nations. Another passage in Jeremiah 23 begins with “Woe” to the shepherds. “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD” (Jer. 23:1). Judah’s leaders had proved to be bad “shepherds” who “scattered my [i.e. the LORD’s] flock” (Jer. 23:2). After a similar denunciation of Judah’s bad “shepherds” who feed themselves and not the sheep, and otherwise abuse the sheep (Ezek. 34:2-20), the LORD says, “I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out” (Ezek. 34:11). “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 34:15; cf. Ps. 23). So when Jesus talks about the shepherd pretender, “a thief and a bandit” (Jn. 10:1), the stranger whom the sheep will not follow (v. 5), and when he sets that picture in contrast with the “gatekeeper” whose voice the sheep hear, who “calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (v. 4), both he and his audience–still the Pharisees (9:40) or “the Jews” (10:19)–understand his imagery in terms of its biblical background. “Jesus uses a figure of speech [paroimivan, paroimian = ‘proverb, dark saying, figure of speech,’ Gingrich Lexicon. s.v. paroimiva, paroimia] (v. 6) to describe his own role and the role of his opponents, the religious hierarchy” (Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., NOAB, 3rd ed., 2001, on Jn. 10:1-6). His opponents are “thieves” and “bandits.”

But there is more. Jesus is “the gate for the sheep” (vv. 7, 9), which one enters to “be saved” (v. 9) and to “have life, and have it abundantly” (v 10). He is “the good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep” (v. 11). In light of the prophetic uses of the “shepherd” imagery, and the twenty-third Psalm, for example, Jesus’ claim, “I am the good shepherd” (v. 11) amounts to a claim of divinity (cf. 5:18; 8:58; 10:30; 17:11; 1:1). According to Hendricks, “I am is emphatic [and] contrasts with ‘hired hand’ (v. 12)” (ibid., on v. 11). “I am” translates ejgwv eijmi (egō eimi, v. 11, cf. vv. 9, 14), the phrase that introduces Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah (4:26, cf. v. 25), “the bread of life” (6:35, 48, cf. vv. 41, 51), “the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5), “from above” (8:23), “the resurrection and the life” (11:25), “the way, the truth and the life” (14:6), and “the true vine” (15:1), all claims in various ways to divinity as he emphasizes in 8:58, “before Abraham was, I am” (cf. comments Wednesday of this week, Sept. 3, 2008).

On the other hand, according to Hendricks, the reference to the “hired hand” who “sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and runs away” (v. 12), is “another attack on the leadership of Israel” (op. cit., on vv. 12-13). As the good shepherd, Jesus knows his “own” (v. 14) and “lay[s] down [his] life for the sheep” (v. 15), including “other sheep” as a part of “one flock” with “one shepherd” (v. 16). Jesus’ knows what lies ahead for him: “I lay down my life for the sheep” (v. 15), “in order to take it up again” (v. 17). The crucifixion is not a defeat for Jesus, nor a victory for his opponents. “No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father” (v. 18). Very soon, Jesus will say, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). He was not referring to the ascension, for at the Last Supper, after Judas “had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him” (13:31). We affirm Christ’s divinity when we confess that Jesus is Lord (1 Cor. 12:3). Let us live our lives in ways that bring honor to his name.

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net