God's Answer To Job

Abstract

God's answer to Job (chs. xxxviii-xli) is, at best, enigmatic. It seems to raise problems instead of solving them. Placed as it is after Elihu's speeches, and not directly following the dialogues of Job and his friends, how does it relate to those cycles of arguments and counterarguments? In what way is the answer relevant to Job's problems as he himself defines them within the main body of the book? Does it provide a satisfying solution? Conversely, in what way-if at alldoes Job's reply to God's speeches clarify God's intent? Presumably, God's words should constitute the climax to the book as a whole, and elaborate the religious philosophy of the author who composed these chapters. In order to answer these preliminary questions we must first consider the following points: a. What are Job's problems, as he himself sees them? They can be schematically divided into three main categories. They are, first and foremost, the practical hardships of which we hear from the prose narrative (chs. i-ii) onwards: Job suffers physically, economically, socially, and emotionally. On the next level, and intertwined with the mundane ones, his problems are spiritual-religious and intellectual. Job interprets his undeserved misfortune as a sign of religious isolation, of disharmony with and removal from God. Finally, he suffers from a strong sense of moral injustice. Throughout his complaints he repeats his accusations that God is remote and unfeeling, and that he has done him a great injustice, for Job feels that he does not deserve this excessive measure of suffering. Therefore Job turns himself into an example of the inapplicability of the traditional theory of reward and punishment, a theory that advocates both divine providence and divine justice. All three aspects are summarized in Job's final plea, chs. xxix-xxxi.