The Trial of Job

Job's Defender, continued

^16:22For the years are few and passing Soon I go the way of no return. ^17:1My breath is labored; My days are spent; The graves beckon to me.
²Surely it is mockery; They catch my eye insistently. ³Take this, my pledge with thee. Who else will clasp hands with me?		Job walks back to the Pit and throws the potsherd in. Addressing the dead. Asking the crowd.
⁴You have closed their minds to reason, So you will not raise them up -- you are ⁵Like a man sharing out his property to friends While his children starve.		Speaking to God.
⁶Yes, he has made a story of me, A human sacrifice for all the world to see. ⁷My eyes are dimmed with grief And my sight reduced to shadows.		Addressing the crowd.
(⁸At this the righteous are appalled; The pure one is aroused against the profane. ⁹Still, the tsadik holds to his way, And the clean-handed one keeps growing stronger.)		These verses appear to be later interpolations -- skip.
¹⁰Return now, all of you, to your senses. Will I not find one wise man among you? ¹¹My days are done, my plans shattered; Cut off are the desires of my heart.		Addressing his friends and the crowd together.
¹²They change night into day; "It is dark, so the light must be near!" ¹³But if I take Sheol for my home, Spread my couch in the darkness, ¹⁴If I say to the Pit, "my father thou art," "My mother" and "my sister" to the worm,		Addressing the crowd.
¹⁵Then my hope is but a cry in the wind, Who can find her? ¹⁶Will she go down to the hands of Sheol When we sink to the dust together?		He calls the falcon and it comes. With the falcon on his wrist, Job seats himself on the ashes.
[Radio announcer. Bildad has the original fire and brimstone sermon ready for delivery.] ^18:1Then Bildad the Shuite answered, saying:		The crowd is abuzz.
²How long will your words keep on? Pay attention so we can speak. ³Why are we regarded as cattle, Full of dung, in your opinion?		Addressing the crowd - second person plural.
⁴You who tear yourself in anger, Shall the earth be emptied out for your sake? The rock moved from its place?		Addressing Job, second person singular.
⁵Yes, the lamp of the wicked is put out; The spark of his fire does not shine. ⁶The light grows dark in his tent And the torch over his head fails him. ⁷His strong step is humbled; Into his own trap he stumbles. ⁸His feet bring him straight to the net And he steps out upon the mesh. ⁹The noose takes him by the heel; The bands fasten upon him. ¹⁰A snare is hid for him on the ground And a pitfall is dug across his path. ¹¹Terrors give him fright on every side; They dog his steps. ¹²Ruin hungers for him And Destruction is ready if he falters. ¹³Disease feeds upon his skin; Firstborn of Death devours his parts. ¹⁴She snatches him from the comforts of home And hales him before the King of Terrors. ¹⁵Fire makes its lair in his tent; Brimstone rains down upon his abode. ¹⁶His roots shrivel below And his branches wither above. ¹⁷He is heard of no more on the earth; His name is forgot in the street. ¹⁸He is thrust from light into darkness And driven out of the world. ¹⁹He'll have no son, no kin among his kind, No survivor in another land. ²⁰The West shall be astonished at his end And the East will shudder to hear:		Sermonizing.
²¹Surely these be the haunts of the wicked, This a place that does not know God. [Radio announcer. The crowd has taken Bildad's remarks personally. But here's Job again.] ^19:1Then Job answered, saying:		With a sweeping gesture Bildad indicates both stage & audience. "No!" shouts the crowd until Job quiets them by raising his arms.
²How long will you torture my soul, Crush me with words. ³Ten times you have reproached me, Shamelessly abused me. ⁴Say I did make some mistake -- Let the fault rest with me. ⁵If you must vaunt yourselves over me And argue my humiliation against me, ⁶Then know, it is God has misled me; His is the net that has trapped me. ⁷"Violence" I cry and I am not answered, "Help!" but there is no justice. ⁸He has barred my way; I cannot pass. He has laid darkness upon my path. ⁹He has stripped me of my glory And taken the crown from my head. ¹⁰He has shattered me down, and I go; He has uprooted my hope, like a tree. ¹¹Yes, his anger kindles towards me; He counts me among his foes. ¹²His troops advance together, Building their siege against me, Camping around my tent. ¹³My brothers he put far from me; My acquaintances are completely estranged. ¹⁴My relatives and intimates are gone; My house guests have forgotten me. ¹⁵My slave girls treat me like someone from another land; A stranger I seem to them. ¹⁶I called to my servant and he did not answer; Most humbly did I plead. ¹⁷My foul breath repulses my wife Though I long for the sons of my belly. ¹⁸Even the little boys despise me, Mock me if I rise. ¹⁹All my good friends detest me And those I love have turned against me. ²⁰Only my skin and my flesh yet hold to my bone And I escape by the skin of my teeth.		Second person plural -- addressing his three friends together instead of singling his old friend Bildad out for attack.
²¹Pity me, O pity me, you my friends, For the Hand of God has struck me. ²²Why do you pursue me like God? Is my flesh not enough for you?		On his knees, begging, but they turn away.
²³Who then will grant my wish? For I would that my words were written down, That they were engraved in copper, ²⁴With an iron stylus on lead, Cut into a rock forever!		Job notices the scribe, who gestures with her quill to indicate that the task is already in hand.
²⁵Then I, I know my defender will appear; Yes, he will at last rise up on the dust. ²⁶And after my skin is flayed -- this! -- When apart from my flesh I shall see God! ²⁷Whom I shall see for myself, With my own eyes behold and not another's. My heart faints in my breast. [Radio announcer. What an unbelievable scene. That was the actor stepping out of his part. He is Job's defender, and this is Job's trial just as Job foresaw it thousands of years ago! But now what's this, someone has come forward from the audience.] Elihu. ²⁸If it's "how shall we hound him?" you are asking, And "The root of the trouble is his," that you say,		Job's defender is the actor who plays Job. He stands. This! -- copying Bildad's gesture. The actor steps out of his part. Back in character. Job sits down while his three friends confer. Elihu, a much younger man, a member of the audience in contemporary clothes, speaks the sentiment of the crowd against the three, threatening them with physical violence.
²⁹Then fear punishment for yourselves, For yours are sins deserving punishment. You'll find out there is a judgment, alright! ^20:1Then Zophar the Na'amathite answered, saying: [Radio announcer. We're deep into the chaos now. Here's Zophar figuring it must be his turn again!]		Raising a fist.
²So with my thoughts uncomposed I answer; Yes, I speak from the haste that is in me. ³I hear a reproof that insults me, A wind without intelligence that prompts my reply.		Elihu shouts incoherently.
⁴Do you know this? From of old do you know it, From the day that Adam was put on the earth? ⁵How the triumph of the wicked is short And the joy of the ungodly lasts but a moment? ⁶Though his ambition mounts up to heaven And his head reaches the clouds, ⁷He vanishes like dung forever; Those who see him ask, "Where is he?"		Speaking to Job.
⁸He flies away like an unremembered dream; Yes, he is chased away like a vision of the night. ⁹The eye that sees him now will not see him then, His place will know him no more. ¹⁰His sons must repay to the poor, Or his own hands restore, what he stole. ¹¹Youthful Lust, she fills his bones to the marrow, But she'll bed him in the dust tomorrow. ¹²If evil is sweet to his taste And he melts it under his tongue, ¹³Though he loves it and holds it Tight against the roof of his mouth, ¹⁴Yet it will turn in his stomach And become the gall of cobras within him. ¹⁵The riches he swallows From his belly he'll vomit, Wealth that God will inherit. ¹⁶He sucks the poison of asps And is slain by the tongue of a viper. ¹⁷No streams of oil will he see, No rivers and floods of honey and cream. ¹⁸He will return the fruits of his labor untasted, The profits of his trade unenjoyed. ¹⁹Because he oppressed and abandoned the poor, Seized an estate instead of building one up, ²⁰Because he know no peace in his belly And in his greed he let nothing escape, ²¹Nothing did he leave undevoured, Therefore shall his wealth not endure. ²²With plenty enough he wants more, And the hand of all misery is upon him! ²³He'll get his bellyful then when God sends the fire of his wrath down on him, A rain that will burn into his bowels. ²⁴If he runs from the weapon of iron, The bow of bronze will pierce him through. ²⁵The shaft will take him from behind;		Glancing at Eliphaz.
Just at his liver shall the gleaming point emerge. Terrors will beset his going; ²⁶Darkness is in store for all that he has treasured. A fire unkindled by man will burn him away, Destroying everything to the last remnant of his tent. ²⁷The heavens will reveal his guilt And the land rise up against him, ²⁸To unearth those buried from his house:		Job's wife puts her hand on his shoulder.
Things washed away on the day of his wrath!		God's wrath!
²⁹This is the portion God gives to the wicked; This is the heritage appointed him by God!		The Pit. The playhouse.

With that same sweeping gesture that Bildad and Job used, Zophar tells the audience that he means them. The crowd comes to its feet, Elihu at the fore, shouting and seeming about to do something rash. But Job stands to control the crowd and save his friends. This is a new, stronger Job. His righteousness has been restored. He knows his defender will arise!

Continued...
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last changed January 19, 2002