The Book of Job

^{Job 5:1-11— Job 5:17-21}

^{Below are the redacted verses from the Daily Lectionary reading for today:}

¹² He frustrates the schemes of the cunning, so that they achieve no success; ¹³ trapping the crafty in their own tricks and foiling quickly the plans of the false. ¹⁴ They meet with darkness during the day, groping at noon like at night. ¹⁵ But he saves the poor from the sword, their mouth, and from the clutches of the strong; ¹⁶ so the poor can hope again; and injustice shuts its mouth.

²²you’ll be able to laugh at destruction and famine. Also you won’t have to fear wild animals, ²³ for you will be in league with the stones in the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you. ²⁴ You will know that your tent is safe; you will look round your home and miss nothing. ²⁵ You will know that your descendants are many, your offspring like grass [growing thick] in the fields.

I have two problems with the idea of censoring the Bible. First of all, it’s an arrogant thing to do. Second, it relies on the inflexible presumption that there is only one possible interpretation, and that the redacted sections are somehow problematic in their meaning. At least that’s how it seems to me.

There is also this: If this was done to any other great work of literature it would be unacceptable! There would be shouts of outrage. Why is it that we blandly accept the bowdlerization of the Bible?

I don’t want to turn this post into a soapbox rant, but please take note on your own account of the censorship that is being employed, and draw your own conclusions about it. And, if you are engaged in devotional reading using one of the published lectionaries, take the time to read the omitted verses.

***

Job is my favorite book of the Old Testament. Most people don’t get it, that the whole book is pretty much a description of a very annoying conversation between Job and various sanctimonious friends of his who are trying misguidedly to comfort him by not-very-useful means, such as laying a huge guilt trip on him and telling him that they are only doing it for his own good.  OW!

Today, I felt moved to try and give you a synopsis of Job’s story, sort of the Reader’s Digest condensed version, but I really, really recommend reading the whole thing. The translation I’m quoting (in italics) is from The Complete Jewish Bible.

So, Here goes: God lets the devil torment Job, because the devil said that Job would abandon God, and God said, “Oh no he won’t!” Awful things happen to Job, and some of his friends come to hang out with him and try to comfort him. All is well, until his friends can’t stand the silence any more and start talking at Job. Job answers his friends by pointing out the 400 lb. gorilla in the room, telling his friends that what they’re saying is only on account of their discomfort at his distress. He accuses them of telling him to stop whining for no other reason than that they simply don’t want to listen to him complaining. He calls bullshit on their assumption that he must have done something wrong in order to be punished. Job tells them that he hasn’t ever done anything wrong, and curses the day he was ever born.

What’s more, Job gets even crankier, and says, 

^“Won’t you ever take your eyes off of me, at least long enough for me to swallow my spit? Suppose I do sin — how do I harm you, you scrutinizer of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I am a burden to you? Why don’t you pardon my offense and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust; you will seek me, but I will be gone.”

Then another friend tries to tell him that evil will get its just deserts, and God will reward him for being pure and blameless, but that will happen sometime in the future, and so he should just shut up and wait for it. Then Job says something like, ‘I know that, you idiot, but it’s beside the point, and here’s the point!’: 

“If I say, ‘I’ll forget my complaining, I’ll put off my sad face and be cheerful,’ then I’m still afraid of all my pain, and I know you will not hold me innocent. I will be condemned, so why waste my efforts? Even if I washed myself in melted snow and cleansed my hands with lye, you would plunge me into the muddy pit, till my own clothes would detest me.”  Job follows that with:

“I am just worn out. By my life [I swear], I will never abandon my complaint; I will speak out in my soul’s bitterness.” Then Job starts yelling at God, saying all kinds of things like this:

“I know what your secret purpose was — to watch until I would sin and then not absolve me of my guilt.  If I am wicked, woe to me! — but if righteous, I still don’t dare raise my head, because I am so filled with shame, so soaked in my misery.” and this:

“Aren’t my days few? So stop! Leave me alone, so I can cheer up a little before I go to the place of no return”.

Then Job’s other friend really sticks it to him, and says: 

“Shouldn’t this torrent of words be answered? Does talking a lot make a person right? Is your babble supposed to put others to silence? When you mock, is no one to make you ashamed?”  and then of course the friend goes back to the old stand-by cliché, “It’ll be okay…..someday.” Job sticks it to him right back:

“No doubt you are [the only] people [that matter]; and when you die, so will wisdom.  But I too have a brain, as much as you, In no way am I inferior to you. Besides, who doesn’t know things like these?”  Then he says it isn’t them he wants to talk to:

“However, it’s Shaddai I want to speak with; I want to prove my case to God. But you, what you do is whitewash with lies; you are all witch doctors! I wish you would just stay silent; for you, that would be wisdom!” Then Job really lays it on the line:

“Is it for God’s sake that you speak so wickedly? for him that you talk deceitfully?  Do you need to take his side and plead God’s case for him?  If he examines you, will all go well? Can you deceive him, as one man deceives another?  If you are secretly flattering [him], he will surely rebuke you.”

Then Job demands this from God:  “Listen closely, then, to my words; pay attention to what I am saying.  Here, now, I have prepared my case; I know I am in the right.  If anyone can contend with me, I will be quiet and die! Only grant two things to me, God; then I won’t hide myself from your face — take your hand away from me, and don’t let fear of you frighten me.  Then, if you call, I will answer. Or let me speak, and you, answer me!  How many crimes and sins have I committed?” Then one of the friends tries to tell Job that he’s full of crap, and that no-one is innocent. But Job says,  

“I have heard this stuff so often! Such sorry comforters, all of you!  Is there no end to words of wind? What provokes you to answer this way?  “If I were in your place, I too could speak as you do — I could string phrases together against you and shake my head at you.  I could ‘strengthen’ you with my mouth, with lip service I could ‘ease your grief.’  If I speak, my own pain isn’t eased; and if I don’t speak, it still doesn’t leave.”

Then comes one of the most poignant passages, where Job says, “Earth, don’t cover my blood; don’t let my cry rest [without being answered].  Even now, my witness is in heaven; my advocate is there on high.  With friends like these as intercessors, my eyes pour out tears to God”.  Then one of the friends tries to tell him “It’s not all about you,” and says,

“When will you put an end to words? Think about it — then we’ll talk!  Why are we thought of as cattle, stupid in your view?  You can tear yourself to pieces in your anger, but the earth won’t be abandoned just for your sake; not even a rock will be moved from its place.”  But Job answers him,  

“How long will you go on making me angry, crushing me with words?  You’ve insulted me ten times already; aren’t you ashamed to treat me so badly?  Even if it’s true that I made a mistake, my error stays with me. You may take a superior attitude toward me and cite my disgrace as proof against me;  but know that it’s God who has put me in the wrong and closed his net around me.  If I cry, ‘Violence!’ no one  hears me; I cry aloud, but there is no justice.”

Then Job says this:  “My wife can’t stand my breath, I am loathsome to my own family.” How could anyone hear that and not be moved? He begs his friends, 

“Pity me, friends of mine, pity me! For the hand of God has struck me!  Must you pursue me as God does, never satisfied with my flesh?”  But his friends don’t listen and don’t stop, they just keep on harping on the same old tune. So Job says,

 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the comfort you give me.  Bear with me as I speak; then, after I have spoken, you can go on mocking. As for me, is my complaint merely to other people? Don’t I have grounds for being short-tempered?  Look at me, and be appalled; cover your mouth with your hand!  Whenever I recall it, I am in shock; my whole body shudders.” Job asks his friends,

“Why offer me such meaningless comfort? Of your answers, only the perfidy remains.”  One of the friends asks him,

“Can a human be of advantage to God? Can even the wisest benefit him?  Does Shaddai gain if you are righteous? Does he profit if you make your ways blameless?”  Well that’s a really good question, but the friend doesn’t even seem to hear himself, and goes back to trying to convince Job that he should “Learn to be at peace with [God]; in this way good will come [back] to you. Please! Receive instruction from his mouth, and take his words to heart.  If you return to Shaddai, you will be built up.” Job answers him,

“Today too my complaint is bitter; my hand is weighed down because of my groaning. I wish I knew where I could find him; then I would go to where he is. I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know his answering words and grasp what he would tell me. Would he browbeat me with his great power? No, he would pay attention to me. There an upright person could reason with him; thus I might be forever acquitted by my judge.”

Then comes a part that breaks my heart, but sadly it’s too long to quote here. Job starts Chapter 24 by asking, “Why are times not kept by Shaddai? Why do those who know him not see his days?” and then goes on to list a catalogue of the world’s evil, naming off all the ways that humans prey upon one another; how we suffer grief and loss; how we rebel against the light and God doesn’t even notice.

Then one of Job’s friends really pisses him off by saying, “How then can humans be righteous with God? How can those born of women be clean?  Why, before him even the moon lacks brightness, and the stars themselves are not pure.  How much less a human, who is merely a maggot, a mortal, who is only a worm?!” That makes Job get all sarcastic:

“What great help you bring to the powerless! what deliverance to the arm without strength!  Such wonderful advice for a man lacking wisdom! So much common sense you’ve expressed! Who helped you to say these words? Whose spirit is it, coming forth from you?”  Iyov  (Job) continued his speech: “I swear by the living God, who is denying me justice, and by Shaddai, who deals with me so bitterly, that as long my life remains in me and God’s breath is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak unrighteousness, or my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me to say you are right; I will keep my integrity till the day I die.  I hold to my righteousness; I won’t let it go; my heart will not shame me as long as I live.”

Then Job gets all philosophical and starts talking like a wordsmith about the nature of good and evil and the source of wisdom: “So where does wisdom come from? where is the source of understanding, inasmuch as it is hidden from the eyes of all living and kept secret from the birds flying around in the sky? Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor about it with our ears.’ God understands its way, and he knows its place.”

In a while, Job starts wishing for the good old days, and mourning for everything he’s lost. He says, “Didn’t I weep for those who were in trouble? Didn’t I grieve for the needy?  Yet when I hoped for good, what came was bad; when I expected light, what came was darkness.”  Finally, Job says, ‘I’m done talking.’

"So these three men stopped trying to answer Iyov, because he remained convinced of his own righteousness."

 It’s at this point that the youngest friend, who’s been quiet all this time, gets his turn: "But then the anger of Elihu the son of Barakh’el the Buzi, from the family of Ram, blazed up against Iyov (Job) for thinking he was right and God wrong.  His anger also blazed up against his three friends, because they had found no answer to Iyov but condemned him anyway." Elihu says:

“You spoke within my hearing, and I heard what you said —  ‘I am clean, without transgression; I am innocent, not guilty.  Yet [God] finds pretexts for accusing me; he regards me as his enemy.  He puts my feet in the stocks and watches wherever I go.’  “But in this, you are wrong; I will answer you: God is greater than any mortal.  Why do you strive against him? He will not defend his words —  God speaks once, even twice, and still the hearer misses the point.”

Now we’re onto something! Elihu says some pretty telling things, among them this: “But if God is silent, who can accuse him; if he hides his face, who can see him? He may do this to nations and persons alike,  so that godless men will not become kings, and the people will not be lured into traps. For has anyone said to God, ‘I have been chastised without having offended;  teach me what I have failed to see; and if I have done wrong, I will do it no more’?  Must his rewards meet your approval? Well, you are the one who doesn’t like them, so you, not I, should pick the alternative; come on, say what you think!  Intelligent people will tell me, every wise man who hears me will say,  ‘Iyov is speaking without thinking; his words lack discernment.’ I wish Iyov would be kept on trial forever, because he answers like wicked men.  For now to his sin he adds rebellion; he [mockingly] claps his hands among us and keeps adding to his words against God.”

Later, Elihu went on to say:  “Are you so convinced you are right, that you say, ‘I am more just than God’?  For you ask what advantage it is to you, ‘How do I gain from not sinning?’”  Elihu also asks a very telling question:

If you are righteous, what do you give him (God)? What benefit does he get from you?  Your wickedness can affect only others like you, and your righteousness only other human beings.” Elihu wraps it up by saying,

“Shaddai, whom we cannot find, whose power is immense, in his great righteousness does not pervert justice. This is why people fear him; he does not consider those who think of themselves as wise.”

Elihu seems to be on the right track, because right after he speaks, God erupts out of the storm and asks,

“Who is this, darkening my plans with his ignorant words? Stand up like a man, and brace yourself; I will ask questions; and you, give the answers!”

Then comes the part that my father used to read out loud: Chapters 38 through 41. It’s beautiful.

God starts out by asking Job,

 “Where were you when I founded the earth?
Tell me, if you know so much.
Do you know who determined its dimensions
or who stretched the measuring line across it?
 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

and then God, in love with all of Creation, goes on to describe it (in Chapters 38 – 41) with such passionate poetry that I literally get chills whenever I read it.

The final chapter of the Book of Job tells us:

 ^“After Adonai had spoken these words to Iyov, Adonai said to Elifaz the Teimani, “My anger is blazing against you and your two friends, because, unlike my servant Iyov, you have not spoken rightly about me.  So now, get yourselves seven young bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Iyov, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. My servant Iyov will pray for you — because him I will accept — so that I won’t punish you as your boorishness deserves; because you have not spoken rightly about me, as my servant Iyov has.”

Please note that it was after Job prayed for his friends that all his fortunes were restored.

“Then, old and full of days, Iyov died.”

Nobody ever seems to notice that all the pious stuff his friends try to tell Job gets blown right out of the water by a smart-aleck kid and an exasperated God. Job gets vindicated, not on account of his complaining, but on account of his integrity. Nobody seems to notice something else: in this book of the Bible all the preachifying, holier-than-thou, controlling, smug, power-mongering, and hypocritical notions that we human beings have dumped on each other in the name of religion are absolutely and utterly repudiated by God. In person; whirlwind and all!

It really all comes down to a couple of simple things to remember:

If your friend is in trouble, don’t tell her “Everything will be okay”;

and don’t tell him that “God never gives you anything you can’t handle”.

Don’t say “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Don’t say, “It’s not all about you.”

Just don’t!

And by the way, if you are the one in trouble,

don’t go getting pissy with your friends.

After all, we are all in the same boat together,

and God doesn’t like it when we’re ‘boorish’.

Last but not least, don’t go making it about who’s right, or who’s to blame.

Just give that right up.